Turning Spelt Husk Residues Into Packaging: A Scenario‐Based LCA of Varied Production and Material Parameters

Besides economic and welfare aspects, breeding might also reduce environmental impacts, such as use of water or land, or emission of CO2, methane or ammonia Thus, environmental impacts have received increasing attention in the definition of breeding goals. Environmental impacts occur not only at the farm level, but also during the production of farm inputs (upstream processes), such as feed production, or during processing or selling of animal products (downstream processes). A method commonly used to assess the environmental impact of livestock or fish production is life cycle assessment (LCA). LCA is a standardized method that estimates the environmental impacts of a product during the entire life cycle, or in other words, throughout the production chain. LCA links the environmental impacts along the production chain to the main output of that system, i.e. also referred to as the functional unit Functional units in LCAs of food products are, for example, kg of fat-and-protein-corrected milk, kg of grain or meat produced (de Vries and de Boer, 2010) or ton of fresh fish produced Two types of environmental impacts are distinguished in a LCA: the use of natural resources (e.g. land, fossil energy, or water) required for the production of a functional unit and the corresponding emission of pollutants (e.g. ammonia, nitrate or methane) from a given production system. Use of resources or emission of pollutants can contribute to different environmental problems (referred to as impact categories), such as fossil energy use, acidification, eutrophication of or climate change (de Vries and de Boer, 2010). For example, to assess the impact of a production system on climate change, emissions of the main greenhouse gases in food production (i.e. carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O)) are summed along the chain based on their equivalence factor in terms of CO2 equivalent (CO2-eq, 100-year time horizon). Because of its capacity to include environmental impacts at every step of the production system, LCA has started to be used to investigate the environmental effects of genetic improvement in livestock Similar to economic values, environmental values represent the change in environmental impacts (i.e. climate change) after genetic improvement of one trait, while keeping the other traits constant. The purpose of the bioeconomic model developed by

<div class="section abstract"><div class="htmlview paragraph">Faced with one of the greatest challenges of humanity – climate change – the European Union has set out a strategy to achieve climate neutrality by 2050 as part of the European Green Deal. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), which among other aspects identifies climate change effects, is an important tool to assess the environmental characteristic of sustainable technologies or products to fulfill this ambitious target.</div><div class="htmlview paragraph">In this context, research is presented that examines the ecological sustainability impacts of a metallic vs a composite bipolar plate made of innovative graphite-compound based foils for fuel cell applications. A bipolar plate is a central component of the fuel cell stack to ensure efficiency and durability. For this purpose, a LCA is performed for both bipolar plate materials. This assessment follows the methodology of DIN EN ISO 14040/44 and the EU Product Environmental Footprint framework. Focusing on cradle-to-gate system boundary conditions, the research emphasizes the manufacturing processes with the relevant material and energy flows. Dealing with uncertainties in the energy supply chain, a comprehensive sensitivity analysis is conducted defining current and future energy scenarios with various shares of renewable and fossil energy carriers. Furthermore, the impact of different material production locations on the outcome of the LCA is investigated, considering changing geopolitical conditions. To assess also the effect on a fuel cell stack, the study continues with a cradle-to-gate evaluation of the fuel cell system. Afterwards, to also consider the complete lifetime of a fuel cell vehicle, the study is extended to cradle-to-grave system boundary conditions for a C-segment SUV. Besides the evaluation of the global warming reduction potential, the study deals with the impact of the production processes of both bipolar plates on other impact categories like freshwater eutrophication or acidification. The investigations have shown that the use of foil-based graphite-compound bipolar plates can reduce the global warming potential by up to 75% compared to conventional steel bipolar plates.</div></div>

Environmental life cycle assessment of spent coffee ground pellet

BackgroundGlobal targets for reducing resource use have been set by organizations such as the International Resource Panel and the European Commission. However, these targets exist only at the macro level, e.g., for individual countries. When conducting an environmental analysis at the micro level, resource use is often neglected as an indicator. No sum parameter indicating all abiotic and biotic raw materials has been considered for life cycle assessment, as yet. In fact, life cycle assessment databases even lack some of the specific input flows required to calculate all abiotic and biotic raw materials. In contrast, the cumulative energy demand, an input-based indicator assessing the use of energy resources, is commonly used, particularly when analyzing energy-intensive product systems.MethodsIn view of this, we analyze the environmental relevance of the sum parameter abiotic and biotic raw material demand, which we call the material footprint. First, we show how abiotic and biotic raw material demand can be implemented in the Ecoinvent life cycle assessment database. Employing the adapted database, the material footprint is calculated for 12 individual datasets of chosen materials and crops. The results are compared to those of the cumulated energy demand and four selected impact categories: climate change, ozone depletion, acidification, and terrestrial eutrophication.ResultsThe material footprint is generally high in the case of extracted metals and other materials where extraction is associated with a large amount of overburden. This fact can lead to different conclusions being drawn compared to common impact categories or the cumulative energy demand. However, the results show that both the range between the impacts of the different materials and the trends can be similar.ConclusionsThe material footprint is very easy to apply and calculate. It can be implemented in life cycle assessment databases with a few adaptions. Furthermore, an initial comparison with common impact indicators suggests that the material footprint can be used as an input-based indicator to evaluate the environmental burden, without the uncertainty associated with the assessment of emission-based impacts.

Numerous indicators have been suggested as tools for assessing progress towards the circular economy (CE). However, it is unclear what specifically is captured by CE indicators and few studies have tested them on real cases. This review addresses this gap by describing and comparing the resource-related effects captured by existing resource-based product-level indicators and suggesting recommendations for their use and further development. First, the flows and processes quantified by product-level indicators are mapped on a novel flowchart model, which can also be used to select and develop indicators. Second, the indicators are tested on seven real cases. Third, indicator and life cycle assessment (LCA) results are compared. A significant divergence of indicators’ scope is found, where most capture a limited part of the product system. Moreover, important aspects of the CE are not captured: no indicator accounts for resource use in the use phase and there is limited attention to lifetime extension strategies. Additional limitations are the difficulties to assess multiple use-cycles and that most indicators cannot capture absolute mass variations, thus neglecting mass reduction strategies. The testing reveals that using a set of single-focus indicators may be necessary to outline trade-offs. Multi-focus indicators are sometimes harder to analyse but provide a more comprehensive assessment. The testing also illustrates that indicator and LCA results are not necessarily aligned. The latter provides information on environmental impacts and can point to trade-offs between impact categories such as climate change, resource use and land use, indicating that CE indicators cannot easily replace LCA.

In the construction sector, there is a shift towards environmentally conscious practices that prioritize the minimization of environmental burdens. In this study, we dealt with a cradle-to-gate life cycle assessment (LCA) of a wood–aluminum window in two software tools. SimaPro (PRé Sustainability) and Sphera LCA for Experts (formerly known as GaBi) were selected. The results from both software tools were compared to assess the output uniformity of the two selected tools. The results indicate the similarities and differences in the software tools. The most similar results were achieved for impact categories Photochemical Ozone Formation (1.1% difference), Human Toxicity, cancer (total) (3.6% difference), Climate Change (3.7% difference) and for Resource Use, fossils (4.5% difference), respectively. On the other hand, the results were most different in the impact categories Ozone Depletion (84.7% difference), Resource Use, minerals and metals (75% difference), Ecotoxicity, freshwater—inorganics (35.6%) and Ecotoxicity, freshwater (total) (31.2%), respectively. The differences in the LCA results between SimaPro and GaBi were analyzed in-depth and were mainly attributable to using different databases in the transportation process and due to different system boundaries in some processes, with the Ecoinvent data containing significantly more background processes and inconsistencies in the implemented characterization factors.

Polylactide (PLA) is both bio‐based and biodegradable and has therefore attracted increased attention for single-use plastics applications. Under the context of the recent EU Plastics and Bioeconomy strategies, this study uses life cycle assessment (LCA) to assess the environmental footprint of single-use drinking cups made from PLA, including 13 environmental impact categories. Land use changes (LUCs) were assessed based on a deterministic model. The manufacturing phase was modeled based on primary production data stemming directly from the industry. The end-of-life (EoL) impacts were assessed using the EASETECH. PLA cups were then compared with their petrochemical counterparts polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and polypropylene (PP) cups. Based on the available data quality of the petrochemical polymers, six impact categories were compared. For PLA cups, the process energy use in the conversion from biomass to PLA polymer was identified as the main environmental hotspot, followed by the electricity consumption of thermoforming of the cups. It was found that the biomass acquisition phase has a limited overall impact. LUCs contribute to a negligible impact in all impact categories except for climate change and photochemical ozone formation. Compared to PET cups, the current PLA cups offer environmental impact savings for climate change even including the impacts of LUC. Compared to both PET and PP cups, PLA cups offer savings for fossil fuels resource use but lead to higher impacts for photochemical ozone formation, acidification and terrestrial eutrophication.

Background: Life-cycle assessment (LCA) is a comprehensive method used to evaluate the environmental effects throughout the entire lifespan (from creation to disposal) of a product or process. In this study, we conducted an analysis of the environmental impact associated with generating 1 kilowatt-hour of electricity in a combined-cycle power plant located in the southwest region of Iran. Methods: An LCA following ISO 14044 standards was conducted via the ReCiPe method evaluating 10 impact categories at the midpoint level, and covering the entire life cycle. This method was selected for its comprehensive modeling of potential impacts from numerous chemicals and its practicality at both midpoint and endpoint levels. Results: The study found that resource availability (RA) has the highest impact at 53% in endpoint categories, mainly due to natural land transformation (NLT) and fuel depletion (FD). Human health (HH) contributes 43%, while ecosystem diversity (ED) has a minor 4% role. In midpoint categories, over 99% of global warming potential (GWP) and climate change (CC) are from CO2 emissions due to fossil fuel combustion. Conclusion: Midpoint analysis identified NLT, FD, CC, freshwater ecotoxicity, terrestrial ecotoxicity, human toxicity, photochemical oxidant formation, terrestrial acidification, freshwater eutrophication, and water depletion as the most impacted categories by the power plant. However, at the endpoint level, RA, HH, and ED were the primary concerns. Fossil fuel use significantly shaped the environmental impact throughout the power plant’s life cycle.

In this study the environmental impact of the anaerobic digestion (AD) of sewage sludge within an activated sludge wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) was investigated. Three alternative AD systems (mesophilic, thermophilic, and temperature-phased anaerobic digestion (TPAD)) were compared to determine which system may have the best environmental performance. Two life cycle assessments (LCA) were performed considering: (i) the whole WWTP (for a functional unit (FU) of 1 m3 of treated wastewater), and (ii) the sludge line (SL) alone (for FU of 1 m3 of produced methane). The data for the LCA were obtained from previous laboratory experimental work in combination with full-scale WWTP and literature. According to the results, the WWTP with TPAD outperforms those with mesophilic and thermophilic AD in most analyzed impact categories (i.e., Human toxicity, Ionizing radiation, Metal and Fossil depletion, Agricultural land occupation, Terrestrial acidification, Freshwater eutrophication, and Ozone depletion), except for Climate change where the WWTP with mesophilic AD performed better than with TPAD by 7%. In the case of the SL alone, the production of heat and electricity (here accounted for as avoided environmental impacts) led to credits in most of the analyzed impact categories except for Human toxicity where credits did not balance out the impacts caused by the wastewater treatment system. The best AD alternative was thermophilic concerning all environmental impact categories, besides Climate change and Human toxicity. Differences between both LCA results may be attributed to the FU.

This study tries to find out the hotspots of the Spanish cement sector in 2010 by the life cycle assessment (LCA) and evaluates some improvement scenarios where best available technologies and substitution measures are taken into consideration. The document presents an environmental LCA of the cement production using the 2011 International Reference Life Cycle Data System method recommended by the European Commission. Attending to the clinker production by stage, fossil fuel combustion is the most important source in terms of impacts. Besides, limestone’s calcination is crucial attending to the climate change. Electricity consumption is also relevant both in human toxicity with cancer effects and freshwater eutrophication (FE). Accordingly, solutions deployed lead to reductions in different impact categories. Fossil fuel substitution scenario achieves to reduce 33 and 37 % photochemical ozone formation and acidification (A), while material substitution scenario leads to reduce 10–13 % each impact category. On the other hand, fossil fuel substitution scenario entails an increase of 10 % in FE. Considering the ideal case of applying all these improvements together, reductions go from 15 % in FE to 49 % in A, respectively. To face the problems derived from fossil fuel combustion, a fuel shift is needed to reach less contaminant options such as biomass and bio-waste. Material substitution is another good solution for the industry, but it requires a change in the demand and further research to ensure the properties of cement. Authors recommend taking into consideration the collateral increase of the FE due to the phosphates increase coming from the alternative fuels combustion.

Feeding a growing, increasingly affluent population while limiting environmental pressures of food production is a central challenge for society. Understanding the location and magnitude of food production is key to addressing this challenge because pressures vary substantially across food production types. Applying data and models from life cycle assessment with the methodologies for mapping cumulative environmental impacts of human activities (hereafter cumulative impact mapping) provides a powerful approach to spatially map the cumulative environmental pressure of food production in a way that is consistent and comprehensive across food types. However, these methodologies have yet to be combined. By synthesizing life cycle assessment and cumulative impact mapping methodologies, we provide guidance for comprehensively and cumulatively mapping the environmental pressures (e.g., greenhouse gas emissions, spatial occupancy, and freshwater use) associated with food production systems. This spatial approach enables quantification of current and potential future environmental pressures, which is needed for decision makers to create more sustainable food policies and practices.

Changing from linear to circular economy is now regularly mentioned as part of the solution to global warming, because resource extraction and processing cause half of the greenhouse gas emissions globally. Concrete is the most used human-made material by weight. In this study, three scenarios were modelled for a mid-sized Swedish city: a baseline scenario with business as usual, and two scenarios with increased circularity. Life cycle assessment (LCA) was used to evaluate their resource use and environmental impacts. The results show that the more circular scenarios correspond to lower resource use and reduced environmental impacts compared to the linear baseline scenario. Reductions for impact categories related to climate change (-35%), fossil fuel energy use (-27%), mineral and metal use (-51%), land use (-53%), and water use (-43%) were found in the most circular scenario, as well as for the other environmental impact categories (17%-39%) that were part of the analysis. Most of the impact reductions to climate change (80%-84%), can be attributed to the reduction in the use of Portland cement in concrete through supplementing it with other (by-)products. The avoidance of the landfilling of concrete waste contributed mostly to the reduction of the fossil energy (47%-54%), land (63%-88%), and water (46%-67%) use impact categories. Using recycled concrete aggregate, instead of natural aggregate as an ingredient in new concrete, contributed to much of the reduction achieved in the mineral and metal use impact category (67%-85%). Even though circular scenarios might increase the need for more transport and processing which can lead to higher impacts, the results from this study show them unlikely to negate the overall impact reduction achieved by the circular strategies. Although dependent on local variables, this study indicates that more circularity can be achieved in the concrete industry, even for materials that are dealt with in high volumes such as concrete, while simultaneously increasing sustainability in the form of reduced environmental impacts.

Insulation materials decrease the final energy consumption of buildings. In Germany, fossil and mineral insulations dominate the market despite numerous life cycle assessments (LCAs) showing that bio‐based insulations can offer environmental benefits. Evaluating the results of such LCAs is, however, complex due to a lack of comparability or costs considered. The objective of this study is comparing bio‐based insulations under equal conditions to identify the most environmentally friendly and cost‐efficient material. For this purpose, a comparative LCA and life cycle costing (LCC) were conducted from “cradle to grave” for four bio‐based and two nonrenewable insulations. The bio‐based insulation materials evaluated were wood fiber, hemp fiber, flax, and miscanthus. The nonrenewable insulations were expanded polystyrene (EPS) and stone wool. Key data for the LCA of the bio‐based insulations were obtained from preceding thermal conductivity measurements under ceteris paribus conditions. Eighteen environmental impact categories were assessed, and direct costs were cumulated along the life cycle. Results show that the most environmentally friendly bio‐based insulation materials were wood fiber and miscanthus. A hotspot analysis found that, for agriculturally sourced insulations, cultivation had the largest environmental impact, and for wood fiber insulation, it was manufacturing. The use phase (including installation) constituted a cost hotspot. The environmental impacts of end‐of‐life incineration were strongly influenced by the fossil components of the materials. Overall, bio‐based insulations were more environmentally friendly than EPS and stone wool in 11 impact categories. The LCC found EPS and miscanthus insulation to be most cost‐efficient, yet market integration of the latter is still limited. It can be concluded that miscanthus biomass is an environmentally and economically promising bio‐based insulation material. Comparability of the environmental performance of the bio‐based insulations was increased by applying the same system boundary and functional unit, the same impact assessment methodology, and the preceding ceteris paribus thermal conductivity measurements.

The life cycle assessment (LCA) method was introduced and applied to automotive painting process, SimaPro 9.5 software with the Swiss Ecoinvent 3 Database and the United States Life Cycle Inventory Database (USLCI), as well as ReCiPe 2016 Midpoint (H) model were used to quantitatively evaluate the impact on ecological environment of the use of materials, resources and energy as well as generated emissions and wastes through four important midpoint impact categories: climate change, ecotoxicity, human toxicity, and fossil resource scarcity, to track important environmental footprints including carbon footprint during the whole production activities of automotive painting process. In the end, the results and sensitivity analysis of the LCA research were conducted, conclusions and recommendations were given, which provided a practical industrial case for eco-friendly automobile production. Results of this study show that within the automotive painting production process, energy consumption and its resulting emissions have more significant impacts on climate change, fossil resource scarcity and human toxicity; Material consumption and its resultant emissions and wastes have a notable impact on ecotoxicity. Among the main processes and units of automotive painting production, the topcoat process has the most significant impact on all four impact categories, utility power as well as pre-treatment and electrophoresis processes follow closely. Additionally, the sealant application process exhibits a relatively significant impact on ecotoxicity. Furthermore, if the electricity used in the automotive painting production process is entirely sourced from photovoltaic power generation, compared with traditional grid power supply, the impacts on climate change, fossil resource scarcity and human toxicity would be lower, whereas the impact on ecotoxicity would be more significant.

Life cycle assessment in support of sustainable transportation