An Integrated Multi-Agent Framework for Optimizing Time, Cost and Environmental Impact of Construction Processes

Energy Systems Analysis (ESA) is widely used to determine transition pathways towards renewable energy systems based on desired parameters, and decision-makers can thereby assess the cost and CO2eq emissions related to the modelled scenarios. However, ESA often only accounts for direct greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from fuel combustion and does not include other environmental impact categories. Therefore, combining ESA with Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is valuable, as LCA can compensate for these shortcomings. This research aims to develop a framework to combine the EnergyPLAN ESA tool with prospective LCA to allow for holistic assessments of different energy system scenarios, comparing them based on several environmental impact categories and accounting for indirect impacts such as those caused by the construction of energy capacity. The framework developed in this research couples EnergyPLAN with prospective LCA. EnergyPLAN is an ideal tool for flexible energy systems due to its hourly resolution. The prospective LCA is based on the Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs) implemented through the Premise tool as background databases to assess how the energy system performs based on different potential societal pathways, thus accounting for sensitivity to the background system. The framework is tested on a Danish energy scenario for 2045 (IDA_2045) and compared to a business-as-usual scenario to demonstrate its usefulness for decision-support. Through the EnergyPLAN-LCA framework we achieve a holistic assessment of environmental impacts of the modelled energy systems, finding that even though the IDA_2045 scenario requires massive capacity investments compared to the reference scenario, it still has lower impacts on global warming and land use. An impact trade-off is found for water use caused by the switch from fossil fuels to electrofuels in the transport sector. The framework also highlights the timing of emissions caused by capacity construction, showing that large up-front emissions are used to avoid continuous long-term emissions from energy system operation. However, in the case of IDA_2045, the impacts are still lower than in the reference scenario when accounting for the temporal aspect of emissions. We developed and demonstrated a coupling framework for prospective LCA and EnergyPLAN enabling the assessment of environmental impacts of energy system scenarios with a focus on flexible energy systems. The framework is developed for LCAs on the required energy production to achieve the scenario under assessment. We recommend that the framework is used in an iterative modelling process to increase the value of decision-support.

Purpose Infill materials play a pivotal role in determining buildings’ life cycle costing (LCC) and environmental impacts. International standards prescribe LCC and life cycle assessments (LCA) to assess materials’ economic and environmental sustainability. The existing methods of LCC and LCA are tedious and time-consuming, reducing their practical application. This study sought to integrate LCC and LCA with building information modeling (BIM) to develop a swift and efficient approach for evaluating the life cycle performance of infill materials. Design/methodology/approach The BIM model for a case study was prepared using Autodesk Revit®, and the study included four infill materials (lightweight aggregate concrete block (LECA), autoclaved cellular concrete (AAC), concrete masonry and bricks). LCC was conducted using Revit® and Autodesk Insight 360® to estimate costs incurred across different project phases. LCA was conducted using “One Click LCA®,” a BIM-based platform featuring a comprehensive material inventory. Carbon emissions, acidification, and eutrophication were chosen as environmental impact factors for LCA. Findings LECA was the preferred choice due to its lower cost and environmental impact. Its lifetime cost of $440,618 was 5.4% lower than bricks’, with 2.8% lower CO2 emissions than AAC’s, which were second-place options, respectively. LECA had 6.4 and 27% lower costs than concrete blocks, and AAC’s carbon emissions were 32 and 58% lower than concrete blocks and bricks, respectively. Originality/value BIM has been employed for life cycle analysis in existing literature, but its efficacy in evaluating the lifetime costs and environmental impacts of infill materials remains unexplored. The current study presents a BIM-based approach for conducting LCC and LCA of infill materials, facilitating informed decision-making during the planning phase and promoting sustainable construction practices.

A city comprises different subsystems, such as an industry subsystem, agriculture subsystem, building subsystem, and transport subsystem. With the rapid development of the economy and technology, the urbanization of China has accelerated during the last 10 years, which has caused great pressure on the environmental carrying capacity, and the “5-Year Plans” carried out by Chinese government have intensified environmental protection efforts. Therefore, it is important to quantify the environmental impacts and changing trends of all subsystems, such that money can be used effectively to solve targeted urban environmental problems. The purpose of this study was to adapt the existing life cycle assessment (LCA) method in urban territories and apply the improved method to a Chinese city, Dalian, to assess its environmental impacts, thereby validating the effectiveness of the method. On the basis of the existing territory LCA framework, we revised the land use functions, including regional characteristics, inventory analysis, and impact assessment, and performed a supplementary results’ interpretation of land use functions. Environmental analysis was performed based on the LCA with the ReCiPe method, which allowed us to analyze 12 different categories of environmental impact. LCA was performed based on the ISO14040 standard using the GaBi software. The adapted method was applied to a Dalian city, China, in 2000, 2005, 2010, and 2012. The results showed that, over time, the environmental impacts on Dalian have increased, but at a decreasing rate. The environmental impacts of all subsystems have increased rapidly over time, except for the food subsystem. The industry subsystem was the main contributor of environmental impacts and accounted for 80% approximately of the total impact each year. At the same time, tourism and aquatic products also play a significant role in the environment, society, and economy of Dalian. The shortage of water has become a problem that requires attention. The study adapted the existing territory LCA method to highlight regional characteristics in urban territories and applied the improved method to a Chinese city. According to the results, decision makers could identify the subsystem that is the main contributor to targeted environmental problems and improve them accordingly. The quantitative relationship among the environmental impacts of all subsystems and changing trends could benefit decision-making in the future.

This study evaluated the direct and indirect environmental impacts of various unit operations of a industrial waste incineration plant by using the life cycle assessment tool and reviewed the improvement plan. During the incineration process, the direct environmental impact was decreased with decrease in emission of various air pollutants by incorporating an air pollution prevention facilities. However, an increase in indirect environmental impacts was observed as a consequence of resources and energy of consumption at the various operational facilities. Consequently, quantitative direct and indirect impact were 89.1%, 10.9%, respectively. The environmental impact analysis of system revealed the highest impact of incineration followed by the impacts of other unit processes such as semidry reactor, and bag-filter. The various air pollutants and ashes generated during the incineration process caused the most significant environmental impact. Among the various categories of environmental impact, global warming accounted the highest impact(more than 85%) followed by eutrophication, and abiotic depletion. As a result of the avoided impact by the utilization of heat generated during the waste incineration process, using an incineration heat for steam and electricity obtained the impact reduction of 45.5%, 19.8%. So, during siting of new incineration plant, the utilization of steam generated from the waste combustion is highly considered to reduce the environmental impact.

ABSTRACTThe transport phase is one of the crucial stages that can be improved to reduce the environmental impact of the fresh fruit and vegetable supply chain. In this paper, we calculate the environmental impact of feasible logistic alternatives for the above-mentioned supply chain so as to identify the type of transportation that incurs the lowest environmental costs. Specifically, we consider the early potato supply chain as a case study, as it involves one of the main fresh vegetables exported from Italy. Consumers' willingness to pay for the environmental impact of different logistic chains was obtained through life cycle assessment. Our results show that rail transport could reduce environmental impact in terms of tons of oil equivalent, environmental loads, and fuel consumption while ensuring reasonable shipment times. Development of an efficient rail transport system would be positively considered by consumers, enhancing their preferences for Italian products.

Life cycle assessment in support of sustainable transportation

China has the largest coal production in the world due to abundant resource requirements for economic development. In recent years, the proportion of opencast coal mine production has increased significantly in China. Opencast coal mining can lead to a large number of environmental problems, including air pollution, water pollution, and solid waste occupation. The previous studies on the environmental impacts of opencast coal mine production were focused on a single production process. Moreover, mined land reclamation was an important process in opencast coal mine production; however, it was rarely considered in previous research. Therefore, this study attempted to perform a whole environmental impact analysis including land reclamation stage using life cycle assessment (LCA) method. The Yimin opencast coal mine was selected to conduct a case study. The production of 100tons of coal was used as the functional unit to evaluate the environmental risks in the stages of stripping, mining, transportation, processing, and reclamation. A total of six environmental impact categories, i.e., resource consumption, acidification, global warming, solid waste, eutrophication, and dust, were selected to conduct this assessment. The contribution rates of different categories of environmental impacts were significantly different, and different stages exhibited different consumption and emissions that gave rise to different environmental effects. Dust was the most serious environmental impact category, and its contribution rate was 36.81%, followed by global warming and acidification with contribution rates of 29.43% and 22.58%, respectively. Both dust and global warming were mainly affected in mining stage in Yimin opencast coal mine based on comprehensive analysis of environmental impact. Some economic and feasible measures should be used to mitigate the environmental impacts of opencast coal mine production, such as water spraying, clean transportation, increasing processing efficiency, and improving mining technologies. This study can be considered as a useful reference for a deeper understanding of key environmental impacts related to the whole coal production in opencast coal mine.

Life cycle assessment of contrasting grazing systems within a yearling stocker stage of beef cattle production

To identify a proper strategy for future feed-efficient pig farming, it is required to evaluate the ongoing selection scenarios. Tools are lacking for the evaluation of pig selection scenarios in terms of environmental impacts to provide selection guidelines for a more sustainable pig production. Selection on residual feed intake (RFI) has been proposed to improve feed efficiency and potentially reduce the associated environmental impacts. The aim of this study was thus to develop a model to account for individual animal performance in life cycle assessment (LCA) methods to quantify the responses to selection. Experimental data were collected from the fifth generation of pig lines divergently selected for RFI (low line, more efficient pigs, LRFI; high line, less efficient pigs, HRFI). The average feed conversion ratio (FCR) and daily feed intake of LRFI pigs were 7% lower than the average of HRFI pigs (P < 0.0001). A parametric model was developed for LCA based on the dietary net energy fluxes in a pig system. A nutritional pig growth tool, InraPorc®, was included as a module in the model to embed flexibility for changes in feed composition, animal performance traits and housing conditions and to simulate individual pig performance. The comparative individual-based LCA showed that LRFI had an average of 7% lower environmental impacts per kilogram live pig at farm gate compared to HRFI (P < 0.0001) on climate change, acidification potential, freshwater eutrophication potential, land occupation and water depletion. High correlations between FCR and all environmental impact categories (>0.95) confirmed the importance of improvement in feed efficiency to reduce environmental impacts. Significant line differences in all impact categories and moderate correlations with impacts (>0.51) revealed that RFI is an effective measure to select for improved environmental impacts, despite lower correlations compared to FCR. Altogether more optimal criteria for efficient environment-friendly selection can then be expected through restructuring the selection indexes from an environmental point of view.

The increasing importance of the embodied emissions in the life cycle of buildings has led to a growing interest in strategies supporting their mitigation. In this paper are presented the environmental impacts of 10 variants of a single-family house assessed with the life cycle assessment (LCA) method. A set of potential technological improvements and strategies are applied at the material level. Their influence at the building level is discussed and the resulting global warming potentials are compared to the COP21 targets for Austrian buildings. Finally, potential trade-offs in 9 other environmental impact categories are explored. The results show that, when incorporating all of the assessed strategies for emission reduction, the embodied greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions could be reduced up to 87% at the material level and 50% at the building level. Carbon capture and storage and the use of bio-based materials are to be credited for the highest share of these reductions. However, there is no version of this building that fulfils the COP21 targets. Other pathways, which do not solely rely on material-related technological improvements, should be investigated. A more radical change of the building industry might even be necessary. Overall, the implementation of the strategies decreased the environmental impacts in almost every impact category, except for freshwater aquatic ecotoxicity.

Comparing environmental impact of air scrubbers for ammonia abatement at pig houses: A life cycle assessment

Design for excellence

Uncover the interdependent environmental impacts associated with the water-energy-food nexus under resource management strategies

Assessment of environmental impact of biomass power plants to increase the social acceptance of renewable energy technologies

Rice processing is the major food processing industry in Sri Lanka. Although the process creates immense economic, social and environmental impacts, the studies conducted to analyze those impacts are scarce in the country. Though there are various rice production processes in the world, basically there are two rice production processes as raw rice and parboiled rice in Sri Lanka. Out of these, parboiled rice processing is the most prominent one. But, it creates considerable burden on the environment. Parboiling process can be categorized into two, as conventional and modern based on the processing methods practice in the mills. This paper compares the environmental impact of that conventional and modern rice processing by using life cycle analysis as the assessment tool. The results reveal that the modern rice processing creates elevated environmental impact in terms of all considered impact categories. In addition, soaking, drying and de-husking are identified as the most causative unit operations to the total environmental impact.