Data Defects in Material Flow Networks

Preface. Foreword. Part 1: LCA in Perspective. 1. Why a new Guide to LCA? 2. Main characteristics of LCA. 3. International developments. 4. Guiding principles for the present Guide. 5. Reading guide. Part 2a: Guide. Reading guidance. 1. Management of LCA projects: procedures. 2. Goal and scope definition. 3. Inventory analysis. 4. Impact assessment. 5. Interpretation. Appendix A: Terms, definitions and abbreviations. Part 2b: Operational annex. List of tables. Reading guidance. 1. Management of LCA projects: procedures. 2. Goal and scope definition. 3. Inventory analysis. 4. Impact assessment. 5. Interpretation. 6. References. Part 3: Scientific background. Reading guidance. 1. General introduction. 2. Goal and scope definition. 3. Inventory analysis. 4. Impact assessment. 5. Interpretation. 6. References. Annex A: Contributors. Appendix B: Areas of application of LCA. Appendix C: Partitioning economic inputs and outputs to product systems.

Machine Learning Methods for Prediction of Changes in Material Flow Networks

New York State’s (NYS) Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA) requires that 100% of the state’s electricity supply be greenhouse gas emissions-free by 2040 and that 6000 megawatts (MW) of solar energy must be installed in NYS by 2025. This study aims to evaluate the environmental impact of electricity generation from New York State distributed solar photovoltaic systems. This cradle-to-grave life cycle assessment (LCA) follows the International Standardization Organization (ISO) framework for LCA, including the goal and scope definition, inventory analysis, impact assessment, and interpretation. The study is based on operational data from 120 existing solar installations. Global Warming Potential varies substantially by site, with the minimum and maximum impact values varying from 25.2 to 88.5 gCO2eq/kWh, and with a mean of 45.6 gCO2eq/kWh. Regression analysis shows this range is attributable to differences in site location, capacity factor, and system design (i.e., monocrystalline and polycrystalline panels, area power ratio). Based on absolute percentage, the inclusion of the end-of-life process reduces the total environmental impact from 2% in Ozone Depletion to 16% in Acidification, indicating a positive impact of engaging in end-of-life management across all categories. This analysis can help policymakers understand the implications of the solar PV installation mandate.

Based on the combination of the U.S. economic input-output table and the stocks and flows framework for characterizing anthropogenic metal cycles, this study presents a methodology for building material flow networks of bulk metals in the U.S. economy and applies it to aluminum. The results, which we term the Input-Output Material Flow Networks (IO-MFNs), achieve a complete picture of aluminum flow in the entire U.S. economy and for any chosen industrial sector (illustrated for the Automobile Manufacturing sector). The results are compared with information from our former study on U.S. aluminum stocks and flows to demonstrate the robustness and value of this new methodology. We find that the IO-MFN approach has the following advantages: (1) it helps to uncover the network of material flows in the manufacturing stage in the life cycle of metals; (2) it provides a method that may be less time-consuming but more complete and accurate in estimating new scrap generation, process loss, domestic final demand, and trade of final products of metals, than existing material flow analysis approaches; and, most importantly, (3) it enables the analysis of the material flows of metals in the U.S. economy from a network perspective, rather than merely that of a life cycle chain.

This study describes the preparation of an eco‐balance to document the materials and energy which are part of the beer production process of the Hasseröder Brewery Ltd. A general introduction to eco‐balances and material flow networks is followed by the description of the concrete case study. The modelling of material flows and the derivation of eco‐balances is illustrated with the help of a selected process from beer production. Finally, the possibilities and limitations of the balance evaluation is discussed with the aid of performance measurement systems. The article closes with a preview of future studies.

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.

Environmental impacts modeling of Iranian peach production

Solar PV is a crucial technology for the transition to more sustainable economies. Multiple Life Cycle Assessments (LCA) have been made to assess PV environmental impacts. The core of these studies lies on the Life Cycle Inventories (LCI) used for the manufacturing of PV system components. This work identifies several research gaps in the existing LCI: 1) the LCI needed to be systematically updated to take account of technological developments, 2) the facilities and services supporting the main production processes were not covered in detail, and 3) the LCI aggregated at the factory level doesn’t allow the study of energy, material and resource flows. This dissertation presents a process-based bottom-up modelling approach to integrate LCI and circularity strategies for the polysilicon to PV module value chain. Circular production LCI for p- type Cz silicon wafers, Passivated Emitter and Rear Contact (PERC) solar cells and glassbacksheet PV modules with an aluminium frame are integrated and disclosed. The methodology includes a first step of data collection and validation for the reference products and production processes. In a second step, the required process and facilities equipment is determined and dimensioned. The third step is to dimension the civil, structural, and architectural infrastructure for a polysilicon to PV module industrial site with a production capacity of 5 GWp/a. With both the operational and the infrastructure requirements, integral reference products LCI are created. Finally, a number of circularity strategies are proposed and evaluated through comparative LCA and their Total Cost of Ownership., these analyses and results are published in three peer-reviewed publications that integrate this cumulative dissertation. A first publication examines material and solid waste flows and proposes the circular strategies Revalorized Waste (RW) and Vertical Integration (VI). With the RW and VI strategies, it is possible to avoid and revalorize 87% of the solid waste produced in a 5 GWp/a Poly-Si to PV module industrial site, this represents a circular flow of raw materials of 18,756 metric tons per year. In a second publication, the water, chemical, wet exhaust and wastewater flows of a PERC solar cell factory are scrutinized and the circular strategies Low Contaminated wastewater Reclaim (LCR) and Minimal Liquid Discharge (MLD) are envisioned. With the MLD strategy 79% of the water consumption and 84% of the wastewater indirect discharge of a PERC cell factory can be saved. In regions with limited water availability, the LCR and MLD strategies, as well as the reduction or elimination of silane consumption, can become enablers for new investments in PV manufacturing and reduce operational risks of existing production sites. Finally, a third publication calculates the environmental impact of the procurement and construction of the industrial site and proposes the use of a sustainable structural Timber Building System (Timber BS). A key outcome is the creation of updated and state-of-the-art LCI datasets for PV factories. Their adoption into the Ecoinvent database is recommended to replace outdated II datasets from the early 2000s. The LCI update resulted in factory environmental impact reductions ranging from 11.7% to 94.3% for 14 of the 15 environmental impact categories assessed. The updated factory environmental impacts contribute between 0.16% and 4.42% of the total PV module environmental impact for all impact categories assessed. These results show that most of the environmental impacts are due to the operation of the industrial site rather than from its procurement and construction. A sensitivity analysis shows that the most effective measure to reduce environmental impacts of all categories and the cost is to increase the PV module efficiency. A 10% efficiency increase translates into 9.1% reductions on all environmental impacts and Total cost of ownership. A 10% reduction in metallization paste consumption reduces the Resource use, mineral and metals impact by 6.6%. Silane consumption savings of 10% in the cell factory allow a reduction of Water use of 5.7%. Technical parameters with a significant environmental impact, so-called environmental hotspot parameters, and a strong cost driver, such as higher cell efficiency and thinner wafer pitch, are being continuously improved by the PV industry. However, to promote improvements in environmental hotspot parameters with a strong environmental driver and a weak cost driver, such as silane and water consumption and wastewater discharge reduction, environmental policy instruments may be required.

Data reconciliation consists in modifying noisy or unreliable data in order to make them consistent with a mathematical model (herein a material flow network). The conventional approach relies on least-squares minimization. Here, we use a fuzzy set-based approach, replacing Gaussian likelihood functions by fuzzy intervals, and a leximin criterion. We show that the setting of fuzzy sets provides a generalized approach to the choice of estimated values, that is more flexible and less dependent on oftentimes debatable probabilistic justifications. It potentially encompasses interval-based formulations and the least squares method, by choosing appropriate membership functions and aggregation operations. This paper also lays bare the fact that data reconciliation under the fuzzy set approach is viewed as an information fusion problem, as opposed to the statistical tradition which solves an estimation problem.

Material flow networks are a specific technique for material flow analysis. Software tools based on this method have been used by many companies to analyze and improve complex production systems. While their intuitive modeling approach strongly enhances the identification of optimization potentials, automatic model optimization is not yet possible. The KOMSA project has closed this important methodological and instrumental gap. This article presents the developed prototype of a material flow‐based optimization tool. We provide numerical results on the convergence of the implemented optimization algorithms. The added value of integrating optimization with material flow analysis is illustrated by applying the software tool to a real optimization problem from the waste industry.

Weather has an important role in people's lives, such as agriculture, economics, socio-economic, disaster management, and finance. So, weather prediction is very important to be considered. In the prediction process we are often faced with the problem of data incompleteness. Therefore, it needs a proper classification algorithm that able to handle incomplete attribute values in the training data. In this paper, we use two approaches to handle incomplete data, namely are rough set and fuzzy rough set based algorithms. To test the performance of the two algorithms, we use meteorological data to classify rain or dry season. Conclusion of the study showed that the rough set approach is more efficient than the fuzzy rough sets approach. The advantage of fuzzy rough set approach can predict all the conditions that may occur, which can't be done by the rough set approach.

This study investigates the extraction of cellulose from Saudi Arabia-based date palm biomass utilizing a natural deep eutectic solvent (NaDES) integrated with a microwave-assisted process. A comprehensive life cycle assessment (LCA) was conducted in accordance with the ISO 14040 standard, encompassing four key stages: goal and scope definition, life cycle inventory analysis (LCI), life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) and interpretation. The analysis was confined to a gate-to-gate boundary in which two impact assessment methods, namely, ReCiPe Midpoint (H) 2016 and ILCD 2011 Midpoint, were used to assess the environmental impacts. The OpenLCA software (version 2.1.1) with the European Life Cycle Database 3.2 (ELCD 3.2) was used in the study. The ReCiPe method identified impact categories such as fossil resource scarcity, terrestrial ecotoxicity, freshwater ecotoxicity, water consumption, human carcinogenic toxicity and marine ecotoxicity. Conversely, the ILCD method identified freshwater ecotoxicity, water resource depletion, mineral, fossil and resource depletion, human toxicity and cancer effects. The results indicate that freshwater ecotoxicity presents the most substantial environmental impact across both assessment methods, surpassing other categories. Fossil resource scarcity, even though originally appearing impactful, demonstrated a relatively lower normalized score compared to freshwater ecotoxicity. Terrestrial ecotoxicity and water consumption were found to be negligible in their impact. Our findings provide important insights into sustainable material science and waste management, affording potential applications for biomass utilization in the Gulf region.

Purpose Product lifetime is central to circular strategies that by lifetime extension could increase products’ environmental performance. In life cycle assessment (LCA), little attention has been paid to product lifetime modelling, although the environmental benefit of lifetime extension can vary greatly with lifetime values. Since product lifetime modelling may have a significant effect on the results, this study identifies and explains existing approaches. The consolidation of methodology for lifetime extension in LCA can support practice as well as further development of methodology. Methods A scoping literature review identified 67 LCA studies of lifetime extension containing 95 cases. The analysis focused on the case description of product lifetime and its integration in LCA calculations. Then, an overview of product lifetime modelling approaches and guidance for selecting them were developed and summarised into a product lifetime modelling framework which follows LCA methodological steps. Results and discussion Lifetime modelling differs in terms of (1) the lifetime definition, specifying in the goal and scope definition whether periods of idleness and the full technical lifetime are included, (2) the lifetime integration in equations either using a single value, no fixed value or distribution over a population in the inventory analysis and impact assessment and (3) the lifetime sensitivity analysis during interpretation. However, unclear descriptions of lifetime definition and missing references to lifetime data sources in 63 and 26% of the cases, respectively, show that reporting of product lifetime modelling is insufficient for unambiguous interpretation of the results. Additionally, significant variations in LCA results observed through lifetime sensitivity analysis underscore the importance of product lifetime modelling in LCA of lifetime extension. Conclusions Product lifetime modelling is not straightforward, as evidenced by the variety of definitions and existing approaches. The developed lifetime modelling framework offers LCA practitioners a more informed and structured approach to modelling lifetime extension in LCA, highlighting the importance of clear methodology requirements and further development. Recommendations Given the significance of product lifetime for LCA of lifetime extension, along with the observed inconsistencies and often insufficient reporting practices, LCA practitioners are encouraged to carefully consider the definition, integration in equations and sensitivity of product lifetime and to report these aspects transparently. The new framework can support these considerations.

The construction sector plays a key role in the growth of developing countries but faces major environmental challenges, such as greenhouse gas emissions and resource depletion. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is an essential tool for evaluating these impacts and promoting sustainable choices. However, its effective application is limited by the lack of local databases. This study introduces a systematic framework (LOCAL-LCID2) for creating local Life Cycle Inventory (LCI) databases for developing countries. Its application is demonstrated in Burkina Faso’s (BF) context through a comparative LCA of commonly used materials, covering the cradle-to-gate stage. The methodology follows seven steps: (1) identification of materials, (2) data collection, (3) analysis of material and energy flows, (4) development of LCI database, (5) structuring the database using SimaPro 9.6.0, (6) calculation of environmental impacts via ReCiPe 2016 Midpoint, and (7) uncertainty analysis using the pedigree matrix and Monte Carlo simulation. The materials are categorized into two main groups (imported and locally produced) with five subcategories: materials for roofs, walls/structures, floors, openings, and others. The results show that for wall materials, concrete blocks have the highest Global Warming Potential (GWP), with 88.3% of CO2 emissions attributed to cement, implying an urgent need to optimize cement use and explore alternative binders for sustainable construction. Stabilized earth blocks show intermediate GWP at 65% of concrete block emissions, while straw-stabilized adobe demonstrates the lowest environmental impact, suggesting significant potential for reducing construction’s carbon footprint through traditional material optimization. The importation of steel sheets and ceramic tiles shows high GWP due to their energy-intensive production processes and long-distance transport (4 to 40% of emissions), highlighting opportunities to reduce impacts through local manufacturing and optimization of supply chains. The diversification of BF’s energy mix through clean energy imports from neighboring countries decreases GWP by 26.9%, indicating that regional energy partnerships and renewable energy investments are key pathways for minimizing environmental impacts related to energy consumption in the construction industry. Finally, the uncertainty analysis reveals the need for primary data updates in the current LCI database, highlighting both data quality enhancement opportunities and future research perspectives for industrial process assessment. The methodological framework equips decision-makers in developing countries with tools to implement sustainable construction practices through strategic material selection and regional resource optimization.

The LNCS journal Transactions on Rough Sets is devoted to the entire spectrum of rough sets related issues, from logical and mathematical foundations, through all aspects of rough set theory and its applications, such as data mining, knowledge discovery, and intelligent information processing, to relations between rough sets and other approaches to uncertainty, vagueness, and incompleteness, such as fuzzy sets and theory of evidence. Volume XVI includes extensions of papers from the Rough Sets and Knowledge Technology Conference which was held in Banff, Canada, in October 2011. In addition this book contains a long paper based on a PhD thesis. The papers cover both theory and applications of rough, fuzzy and near sets. They offer a continuation of a number of research streams which have grown out of the seminal work by Zdzislaw Pawlak during the first decade of the 21st century.