Yellowhorn (Xanthoceras sorbifolium): A Climate-Resilient Oilseed for Industrial Applications

As the sustainability improvement becomes an essential business task of industry, a number of companies are adopting IT-based environmental information systems (EIS). Life cycle assessment (LCA), a tool to improve environmental friendliness of a product, can also be systemized as a part of the EIS. This paper presents a case of an environmental information system which is integrated with online LCA tool to produce sets of hybrid life cycle inventory and examine its usefulness in the field application of the environmental management. Samsung SDI Ltd., the producer of display panels, has launched an EIS called Sustainability Management Initiative System (SMIS). The system comprised modules of functions such as environmental management system (EMS), green procurement (GP), customer relation (e-VOC), eco-design, and LCA. The LCA module adopted the hybrid LCA methodology in the sense that it combines process LCA for the site processes and input–output (IO) LCA for upstream processes to produce cradle-to-gate LCA results. LCA results from the module are compared with results of other LCA studies made by the application of different methodologies. The advantages and application of the LCA system are also discussed in light of the electronics industry. LCA can play a vital role in sustainability management by finding environmental burden of products in their life cycle. It is especially true in the case of the electronics industry, since the electronic products have some critical public concerns in the use and end-of-life phase. SMIS shows a method for hybrid LCA through online data communication with EMS and GP module. The integration of IT-based hybrid LCA in environmental information system was set to begin in January 2006. The advantage of the comparing and regular monitoring of the LCA value is that it improves the system completeness and increases the reliability of LCA. By comparing the hybrid LCA and process LCA in the cradle-to-gate stage, the gap between both methods of the 42-in. standard definition plasma display panel (PDP) ranges from 1% (acidification impact category) to −282% (abiotic resource depletion impact category), with an average gap of 68.63%. The gaps of the impact categories of acidification (AP), eutrophication (EP), and global warming (GWP) are relatively low (less than 10%). In the result of the comparative analysis, the strength of correlation of three impact categories (AP, EP, GWP) shows that it is reliable to use the hybrid LCA when assessing the environmental impacts of the PDP module. Hybrid LCA has its own risk on data accuracy. However, the risk is affordable when it comes to the comparative LCA among different models of similar product line of a company. In the results of 2 years of monitoring of 42-in. Standard definition PDP, the hybrid LCA score has been decreased by 30%. The system also efficiently shortens man-days for LCA study per product. This fact can facilitate the eco-design of the products and can give quick response to the customer's inquiry on the product's eco-profile. Even though there is the necessity for improvement of process data currently available, the hybrid LCA provides insight into the assessments of the eco-efficiency of the manufacturing process and the environmental impacts of a product. As the environmental concerns of the industries increase, the need for environmental data management also increases. LCA shall be a core part of the environmental information system by which the environmental performances of products can be controlled. Hybrid type of LCA is effective in controlling the usual eco-profile of the products in a company. For an industry, in particular electronics, which imports a broad band of raw material and parts, hybrid LCA is more practicable than the classic LCA. Continuous efforts are needed to align input data and keep conformity, which reduces data uncertainty of the system.

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology in the design process allows product engineers to improve product sustainability by knowing the hot spots of environmental impacts. However, early integration of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) into the conceptual stage of product designers is often challenging. The challenge will become more difficult when the product engineer uses the LCA approach to collaborate with the industrial designer for the assessment of ecodesign concepts to mitigate adverse environmental impact issues, as design keeps constantly changing to arrive at a better concept. This study proposes a methodology to integrate eco-design and Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) with the ISO 14006:2020 framework as early as the eco-design conceptual stage. The aim is to provide the “Eco-design LCA (ED-LCA)” assessment feedback to the industrial designer and the product engineer so as to mitigate the environmental impacts through concept sketch or concept design. The proposed study is expected to help establish better collaboration between the industrial designer and product engineer, so as to design an environmentally friendly product with an eco-design LCA approach.

Life cycle assessment (LCA), as an assessment tool for environmental performance, is used widely in decision-making of product design. However, apparently, itpsilas not sufficient to make final decision only depending on environmental assessment results for profit-directed organizations. One of the main purposes of this research is to propose a methodology for integration of LCA and economic analysis tool-life cycle costing (LCC) in order to get the integrated evaluation results. A framework of integration of LCA and LCC has been introduced, and a new inventory analysis algorithm based on matrix is designed to realize to take timing of effects into account in inventory analysis. Another aim of this paper is to propose an optimization method which takes mechanical product as the object of study to improve the initial product design to maximize the integrated environmental and economic benefit. A mathematic model is set up for environmental and economic subsystems. Multidisciplinary Design Optimization (MDO) is applied to optimize these models so that the initial mechanical product design can achieve the best environmental and economic performance result. A case study of type 4135G diesel engine is presented to validate the rationality and feasibility of this method.

Life cycle assessment (LCA),as a quantitative assessment tool for environmental performance in green design,is used widely in decision-making of product design.However,apparently,it's not sufficient to make final decision only depending on environmental assessment results for profit-directed organizations.The aim is to propose a methodology for integration of LCA and life cycle costing (LCC).A framework of integration of LCA and LCC is introduced.An inventory analysis algorithm based on matrix is designed to realize to take timing of effects into account in inventory analysis,and a mathematic model integrating environmental and economic performance is set up.Concurrent subspace optimization (CSSO) algorithm is applied to optimize this model so as to achieve the win-win goal of economic and environmental benefit,which provides a quantitative basis for the improvement of initial product design.A case study of type 4135G diesel engine demonstrates the validity of the proposed methodology.

Integration of techno-economic analysis and life cycle assessment for sustainable process design – A review

The main goal of this special issue is to further the understanding of how to integrate life cycle sustainability assessment (LCSA) methods and tools in the urban planning process. It is a relatively new and interdisciplinary topic that supports the integration of life cycle assessment techniques and expertise in urban planning and designing procedures such as strategic environmental assessment (SEA). Starting with life cycle thinking, the integration of the environmental life cycle assessment, and also its implementation to assess economic (life cycle costing), and social impacts (social life cycle assessment) with other planning and designing methods and tools to the urban context have been analyzed and implemented in some case studies. Examples of planning and designing methods considered are urban metabolism, strategic environmental assessment, and multi-criteria decision analysis. Ten contributions draw a clear picture on the current state of the art and present gaps and further developments necessary to build a complete and harmonized framework. It is evident that the variability of methodology and expertise involved in this multidisciplinary approach is very high, and that it is very important to support its further implementation to cover the current gaps. An interdisciplinary and harmonized framework and further implementation in three dimensions of sustainability are two examples of desirable future developments that were identified.

Integration of techno-economic and life cycle assessment: Defining and applying integration types for chemical technology development

Yellowhorn (Xanthoceras sorbifolium) is a highly promising woody oilseed tree species, with seed kernels that are rich in high-value components such as oleic acid and nervonic acid, which has significant economic and application potential. Our previous transcriptome analysis results indicate that XsSAD1 and XsKCS1 are potential key genes involved in the oleic acid and the nervonic acid synthesis pathway, respectively. However, the specific molecular mechanism by which XsSAD1 and XsKCS1 participate in fatty acid synthesis is still unclear. In this study, the correlation analysis results showed that the expression levels of XsSAD1 and XsKCS1 were positively correlated with the contents of the oleic acid and nervonic acid, respectively. Simultaneously, heterologous expression of XsSAD1 in Arabidopsis thaliana increased oleic acid content by 37.3% and XsKCS1 raised nervonic acid levels by 31.4%. Silencing the expression of XsSAD1 and XsKCS1 in the yellowhorn seeds reduced the accumulation of oleic acid and nervonic acid accordingly. Furthermore, it was found that expression level of transcription factor XsMADS1 is not only related to XsSAD1 and XsKCS1, but also binds to MBS elements in their promoters and induced their transcriptional expression. Our study elucidated a novel molecular mechanism of the XsMADS1-XsSAD1/XsKCS1 in regulating the fatty acid synthesis in yellowhorn seed kernels, which offers a theoretical basis for the genetic improvement of high-quality oil-type yellowhorn varieties.

Integrating Life Cycle Assessment and avoid-shift-improve frameworks for sustainable mobility transition in India

Yellowhorn (Xanthoceras sorbifolium) seeds can have as high as 67% oil content and are especially rich in oleic acid, linoleic acid, and nervonic acid. Exploration of the lipid biosynthesis regulatory network is essential for increasing the yellowhorn oil content. Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) play important roles in various plant biological processes; however, there is no report on the identification of lncRNAs involved in yellowhorn seed development and lipid biosynthesis affecting oil production. We performed whole transcriptome sequencing of yellowhorn seeds at four developmental stages and identified 16,920 putative lncRNAs. Among them, 325 lncRNAs were revealed to trans-regulate 58 key genes in fatty acid (FA) and triacylglycerol (TAG) biosynthesis pathways. Of these, ECR-2–LNC_009778 was found to be involved in nervonic acid biosynthesis and DGAT-1–LNC_009778 was beneficial to TAG accumulation. sRNA-seq was performed, and 55 microRNAs (miRNAs) were found to target 26 genes involved in FA and TAG biosynthesis; miR396a-4 targets FAD2, affecting linoleic acid biosynthesis, and miR156f-5p targets PDAT-2, contributing to TAG accumulation. Interestingly, 30 lncRNA–miRNA–gene modules involved in FA and TAG biosynthesis were identified, in which the KCS11-1–miR156g-2–LNC_000849 module was found to participate in nervonic acid synthesis, and the DGAT-2–miR172j–LNC_005874 module was assumed to contribute to the accumulation of TAG. Our results constitute the first comprehensive identification of lncRNAs in developing seeds of yellowhorn and serve as a new theoretical reference for improving oil content in the future.

The purpose of this document is to carry out a critical review of the existing literature by specifically addressing the following: (i) the integration of life cycle assessment and life cycle cost assessment from the perspective of research topics, category and scope of study, authors, institutions, countries, and journals working on or publishing related studies, and (ii) the main aids, challenges, opportunities, methodological difficulties, and current research efforts on the integrated approach of both tools. A systematic review was conducted to identify studies with an integrated use of life cycle assessment and life cycle cost in several areas. An analysis of the main aspects of the studies identified, such as bibliographic reference, year of publication, institution where the research was conducted, country, area of application, category of study, journal of publication, impact factor, and number of citations was conducted. After a search in the Science Direct, Scopus, and Web of Science databases, 349 documents were identified. After a series of filters (excluding gray literature, reading titles and keywords, reading abstracts, and reading full-texts), which helped ruling out articles that did not contribute to investigating the integration of life cycle assessment and life cycle cost assessment, 90 documents were selected for a detailed analysis. The leading role of the USA and European countries in this issue should be highlighted. The integration of life cycle assessment and life cycle cost seems to be most advanced in the areas of building design and civil construction. Different strategies for the integration of the methodologies are also found, being mathematical modelling and programming for optimization, and multi-criteria decision-making the most recurrent methods. Moreover, there seems to be more challenges than opportunities in said integration. The challenges include the monetization of environmental impacts, higher volatility of economic data compared to environmental data, and differences in environmental and economic background data. These challenges can be turned into opportunities in the development of more comprehensive methodological approaches. Challenges (e.g., time-, resource- and knowledge-intensive, different scopes) and opportunities (e.g., common system boundaries, benefitting from LCA structure to conduct LCC) for the integration of life cycle assessment and life cycle cost were identified. This combined approach allows projects, products, and services to reduce environmental and economic impacts, which can be quantified and compared through improved assessment of potential trade-offs.

Lipid analysis of three special nervonic acid resources in China

Yellowhorn (Xanthoceras sorbifolium) is an oil-bearing tree species growing naturally in poor soil. The kernel of yellowhorn contains valuable fatty acids like nervonic acid. However, the genetic basis underlying the biosynthesis of valued fatty acids and adaptation to harsh environments is mainly unexplored in yellowhorn. Here, we presented a haplotype-resolved chromosome-scale genome assembly of yellowhorn with the size of 490.44 Mb containing scaffold N50 of 34.27 Mb. Comparative genomics, in combination with transcriptome profiling analyses, showed that expansion of gene families like long-chain acyl-CoA synthetase and ankyrins contribute to yellowhorn fatty acid biosynthesis and defense against abiotic stresses, respectively. By integrating genomic and transcriptomic data of yellowhorn, we found that the transcription of 3-ketoacyl-CoA synthase gene XS04G00959 was consistent with the accumulation of nervonic and erucic acid biosynthesis, suggesting its critical regulatory roles in their biosynthesis. Collectively, these results enhance our understanding of the genetic basis underlying the biosynthesis of valuable fatty acids and adaptation to harsh environments in yellowhorn and provide foundations for its genetic improvement.

Integrating life cycle assessment and environmental risk assessment: A critical review

Integrating life cycle assessment in the product development process: A methodological approach