End Of Life Cycle Research Articles

Natural polymers for emerging technological applications: cellulose, lignin, shellac and silk

AbstractIn an effort to stave off the growth of electronic waste (e‐waste) that poses a critical environmental dilemma, scientists often look into nature as an unending inspirational pool of materials and chemical processes that ensure functionality, performance and safe dissolution at the end of life cycle. This short review highlights only four organic polymer materials of natural origin (i.e. cellulose, lignin, shellac and silk) from the very large pool of natural (bio)polymeric materials and looks not only into the recent developments at the industrial scale but also into the emerging niche applications of these materials, while highlighting their implementation into electronics and sensor development. This review exemplifies that natural polymeric materials have great potential for the development of eco‐friendly electronics, in other words the class of industrial products that has carefully considered the important issues of biocompatibility, biodegradability (even compostability), cost of production and energy expanded in production (i.e. the carbon footprint). © 2024 The Author(s). Polymer International published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Society of Chemical Industry.

The Analysis of Sustainable Firm Performance in Textiles SMEs in Bogor, Indonesia

Green supply chain management (GSCM) is an environmentally friendly initiative for all stages of the product life cycle, from product design to handling when the product life cycle ends. This research aims to determine the impact of green entrepreneurial orientation, market orientation, and green supply chain management practices on sustainable firm performance. The sample used was textile SMEs in Bogor Regency, with 62 respondents. The technique used for sampling is purposive sampling with the criteria of SMEs applying the green supply chain management concept. Data was collected through a questionnaire and analyzed using PLS (Partial Least Square). The study shows that green entrepreneurial orientation does not affect green supply chain management practices. Market orientation influences green supply chain management practices. Green supply chain management practices influence sustainable firm performance. Green supply chain management practices do not mediate the relationship between green entrepreneurial orientation and sustainable firm performance but do mediate the relationship between market orientation and sustainable firm performance.

One-part geopolymer based on micronized sediments and fly ash mix: Mechanical, microstructural and leaching assessment

This study aims to investigate the leaching behavior of one-part geopolymer based on micronized sediments and fly ash. Four mixtures optimized in terms of mechanical performance and contain 0, 15, 30 and 50 % of sediments were studied. Mixtures characterization indicated that adding sediments increases compressive strength from 19 MPa to 29 MPa and increases mesoporosity (less than 50 nm) from 1.6 % to 3.5 %, with C-A-S-H and N-A-S-H gels coexistence. Given the use of dredged sediments in mixtures, it was important to study their environmental impact. The batch leaching test (0–4 mm) was carried out to study the environmental impact of mixtures at the end of their life cycle. Next, the potential for the release of chemical elements during the life cycle of the mixtures was studied through leaching tests on monolithic samples. The findings show that geopolymerization is effective for the chemical and physical immobilization of several contaminants contained in aluminosilicate sources. The geopolymer binders synthesized proved effective for the chemical immobilization of large metallic and metalloid trace elements (MMTEs) and anions (sulfate, chloride and fluoride). However, immobilization of oxy-anions MMTEs such as arsenic occurs by physical rather than chemical trapping, due to the low porosity of geopolymers. The concentration of arsenic (As) and selenium (Se) were below the non-hazardous wastes (NHW) threshold for all aluminosilicate sources but after activation the results show that these elements are mobilized due to elevated pH. This shows an effect of alkalinity on element mobilization/immobilization. It was demonstrated that carbonation could be a solution for immobilizing arsenic at the end of the mixtures' life cycle, as it reduced its concentration for all mixtures (between 20 and 51 % depending on the mixtures). In addition to these findings, the pH assessment (less than 12.5) showed that these binders can be considered as non-hazardous materials and can be assimilated to an ordinary non-corrosive binder.

EMBODIED CARBON EVALUATION IN EARLY-STAGE DESIGN STUDENTS’ PROJECTS AS PART OF A SUSTAINABLE AND RESILIENT CURRICULUM

ABSTRACT The building industry causes 40% of global carbon emissions, out of which more than a quarter is constituted by the individual constructions’ embodied carbon. The latter figure takes into consideration not only the selection of materials, the energy needed for their production, and their renewal until the end of the building's life cycle, but also their geographic origin relative to the building's location. The scientific method used to determine this figure, the so-called Life-cycle Assessment (LCA), of new and reused constructions, occupies an important role in the way the architectural profession can address climate change. These efforts are not limited to research and practice, but include the introduction of LCA tools as part of architectural education, with the ultimate goal of establishing energy-efficiency as an intuitive component of the architect's design process. In this paper, the authors investigate the opportunities and pedagogical issues encountered over the course of a second-year undergraduate design studio, during which the life cycle assessment of embodied carbon was introduced as an integral part of the project syllabus. On the one hand, the results reveal the substantial energy-saving potential provided through the use of LCA tools, with more than 50% carbon saving potential provided through the exchange of concrete with cross-laminated timber, but on the other hand they manifest the difficulty of attracting the students’ attention for such exercises during a design studio.

Estimating adaptation effort in industry 4.0-enabled systems: Introducing two complexity indices with an evolvable network graph approach

One of the key aims of Industry 4.0 is to create more responsive systems. Responsiveness enables coping with new market requirements or introducing new products, as demonstrated by the COVID-19 challenges. However, there are currently no effective methods for measuring the responsiveness or reconfigurability of a system, or for quantifying the effort required to adapt it from one state to another. Adapting a production cell from its current state to a new adapted state requires a significant amount of information about dismantling, reintegrating, and handling physical equipment, as well as updating the software controller. Practitioners often only consider adaptation options for simple process parametrization or at the end of a system's life cycle, overlooking many potential adaptation opportunities. This paper proposes an evolvable network graph approach for supporting reconfiguration decisions by estimating the effort required to adapt the physical structure. Two complexity indexes have been developed to quantify the adaptation activities. An estimation algorithm infers the effort from the difference in the adaptation graphs that represent alternative options. The approach is illustrated in a laboratory-scale cell and applied in two industrial-sized cells, quantifying adaptation times of approximately 58, 7, and 122 h, respectively. This is equivalent to £3129.6, £356.04, and £6118.8, utilizing average hourly rates for system integrators and equipment handlers. The results show that the approach can effectively quantify the adaptation effort for different equipment sizes and connections, estimating the adaptation cost and time from the graph change quickly at around a millisecond and with minimal computational resources.

Life cycle assessment of fluorinated gas recovery from waste refrigerants through vacuum swing adsorption

The refrigeration industry is facing a challenge due to stricter regulations on the use of fluorinated gases (F-gases) with high Global Warming Potential (GWP). In many cases, the design of alternative refrigerants requires the recycling of low and moderate GWP compounds from existing refrigerant blends, but currently there is no a standardized technology available to recover them, and finally most gases are incinerated at the end of the equipment's life cycle. Recently, Vacuum Swing Adsorption (VSA) has been proposed as a possible solution for the complex separation of F-gas mixtures. The environmental sustainability of the recovery of R-32 from R-410A blend using a VSA process (circular economy scenario), was analysed through a life cycle assessment (LCA) approach, and it was compared to the conventional R-32 production (benchmark scenario). The results show that the VSA technology can achieve a 30.9% recovery of 97 mol% R-32 suitable for further reuse, with a reduction in the environmental loads ranging from 58 to 99% compared to industrial R-32 production. The carbon footprint of the recovery process is 4.81 kg CO2 equiv., while for the industrial production of R-32 is 10.9 kg CO2 equiv. This study proves that the development of adsorption-based technologies for F-gas recovery can improve the environmental impact of these compounds from a circular economy perspective.

Integrating product-service innovation into green supply chain management from a life cycle perspective: A systematic review and future research directions

Product-service innovation and its associated benefits for customers and manufacturers has gained significant attention in the innovation and servitization literature. However, the extant literature remains unclear in regard to how product-service innovation may contribute to green supply chain management with improved environmental performance and to the pathways by which it can do so. In order to fill this important gap, this paper presents a systematic review of the body of knowledge on product-service innovation and green supply chain management by considering the missing link in servitization research—namely, the product lifespan and life cycle perspective. Anchored in stakeholder theory as an overarching theoretical perspective, our study reveals (1) the categorical product lifespan approach to and (2) the dynamic life cycle perspective on product-service innovation and green supply chain management, and (3) how collaborative partnerships can be a pathway for the integration of product-service innovation into green supply chain management. We found that it is crucial to engage with diverse stakeholders from a life cycle perspective, including beginning, middle, and end of life. Our study provides important insights into the enabling role played by product-service innovation for environmental sustainability and outline the future research directions.

Classification of Image-Based Wheat Leaf Diseases using Deep Learning Approach: A Survey

This paper focuses on detecting leaf diseases in wheat plants from the beginning to the end of the plant's life cycle. It highlights the best techniques for detecting various types of wheat leaf diseases and emphasizes the use of computer vision, image processing, and machine learning. The main focus is on classifying these diseases through deep convolutional neural networks, a popular image recognition and classification approach. The paper reviews various techniques for classifying image-based wheat leaf diseases, including spot blotch, stripe rust, brown rust, and powdery mildew. The paper aims to summarize the state-of-the-art techniques for detecting wheat leaf diseases.

Repair and recycling of PCBs and their components based on obsolescence index: a domestic electrical appliances case study.

Population expansion and improving living standards, particularly in developed nations, have led to an increase in the usage of domestic electrical equipment, worldwide energy consumption, and CO2 emissions per capita. To limit the usage of non-reusable components and the amount of garbage that must be transferred at the end of a product's life cycle, longer-lasting electrical domestic appliances are a pillar of the circular economy. In recent years, the complexity of printed circuit boards (PCBs) used in the manufacture of modern electrical devices has increased, leading to an increase in device failures. This study focuses on the maintenance and recycling of domestic electrical appliance components and printed circuit boards. The proposed methodology for PCB repair is defined as a sequential quadratic programming (SQP) problem implemented in MATLAB environment and successfully tested to a variety of domestic appliances such as refrigerator, dishwasher and washing machine. The possibility of recycling metal parts of electronic components, which were replaced after PCBs' repair was also studied. Metals' percentage concentration of PCB electronic components for three customer's budgets considering metals and valuable metals recovery as given from the corresponding average metal recovery and calculated from different recycling procedures presented in the literature. The results of the proposed procedure in terms of valuable metals gave 38.4078ppm of silver. We also compared the suggested procedure with other works in terms of environmental perspective considering four measures, namely the gross energy requirement (GER), the global warming potential (GWP), the acidification potential (AP), and the solid waste burden (SWB). In terms of economic perspective and considering the existence of silver (Ag) in the electronic components, the recommended method gave comparable amount of money. Finally, a comparison of different recycling works from a technical viewpoint is also conducted. Moreover, a reparability index of domestic electrical appliances is introduced to further quantify the results of the proposed algorithm.

ANALYSIS OF THE ADVANCES IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF NEW GENERATION OF SUSTAINABLE, BIO-BASED AND/OR RECYCLABLE COMPOSITES

The introduction of polymer matrix composites in large structural parts for aircraft, buses, trains, and wind turbine blades has significantly boosted their efficiency. This is mainly due to the significant reduction in weight, resulting in fuel savings and a reduction on environmental impact. The annual use of these products is around 110.000 tonnes of carbon fibre composite parts and 4.5 million tonnes of glass fibre, with an average lifetime of around 15 years. Nevertheless, it should be noted that these products have high recycling disadvantages. Therefore, due to current environmental legislation, it is necessary to look for more sustainable alternatives, solutions to the waste generated during production, and at the end of life cycle. Key Words: bio-based composites, sustainable, thermosetting, vitrimers, natural fibres.

Marketing Approaches for a Circular Economy

The circular economy is a model of production and consumption, which involves sharing, leasing, reusing, repairing, refurbishing and recycling existing materials and products as long as possible. In this way, the life cycle of products is extended. In practice, it implies reducing waste to a minimum. When a product reaches the end of its life, its materials are kept within the economy wherever possible. These can be productively used again and again, thereby creating further value. The circular economy is based on the model of production-consumption-recycling/reuse. At the end of a product's life cycle, its materials are reused to create other goods. The circular model (or sustainable practices) can be adopted by companies in any sector. In a circular economy, marketing can be used as a tool to explore circularity opportunities among the target audiences, and to understand what circular opportunities exist, uncover those opportunities, and then collaborate with production specialists and R&D teams in creating the products to serve those needs. However, there are few studies that incorporate a marketing and communications perspective on the circular economy or which focus on the ways in which businesses providing circular products or services currently use communications to market their offerings and influence consumer behaviour. This paper represents an initial, exploratory study that highlights the recycling done in various Industrial sectors

DECISION OF THE CONSTITUTIONAL COURT OF UKRAINE ON THE CONSTITUTIONALITY OF ARTICLES 81, 82 OF THE CRIMINAL CODE OF UKRAINE IN THE PRACTICAL USE OF THE EUROPEAN COURT OF HUMAN RIGHTS

The relevance of the study lies in the assessment and analysis of the decision of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine on the application of the provisions of Articles 81, 82 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, which are unconstitutional because they violate the personal rights of those sentenced to life imprisonment because they cannot be applied. The decision on unconstitutionality is commensurate with the convention requirements due to the practice of the European Court. The purpose of the study is to examine the specific features of the decision of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine regarding the compliance of articles of criminal legislation with the Constitution of Ukraine, to analyse the functioning of the institution of clemency in international experience, to examine the practice of the European Court of Human Rights regarding the parole of persons sentenced to life imprisonment. The methods used to examine the subject are: comparative, legal recognition, logical and legal, hermeneutical, analysis methods. Among the results of the study are the determination of the fact of violation of the constitutional rights of convicts due to the lack of prospects for release from punishment; characteristics of the court's decision on the admissibility of the provisions of criminal legislation, considering convention requirements; disclosure of human rights violations by comparing life imprisonment with the end of a person's life cycle; analysis of the practice of the European Court regarding the Prohibition of the use of life imprisonment. The paper also suggests ways to solve these problems. It is proved that the decision of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine satisfies the Convention requirements. The provisions disclosed in the study will be useful for analysing court decisions and creating recommendations for overcoming gaps in criminal legislation to harmonise it with the Constitution of Ukraine and comply with its obligations to protect human rights and dignity.

Getting Outside the Cell: Versatile Holin Strategies Used by Distinct Phages to Leave Their Bacillus thuringiensis Host.

ABSTRACTHolins are small transmembrane proteins involved in the final stage of the lytic cycle of double-stranded DNA (dsDNA) phages. They cooperate with endolysins to achieve bacterial lysis, thereby releasing the phage progeny into the extracellular environment. Besides their role as membrane permeabilizers, allowing endolysin transfer and/or activation, holins also regulate the lysis timing. In this work, we provide functional characterization of the holins encoded by three phages targeting the Bacillus cereus group. The siphovirus Deep-Purple has a lysis cassette in which holP30 and holP33 encode two proteins displaying holin properties, including a transmembrane domain. The holin genes were expressed in Escherichia coli and induced bacterial lysis, with HolP30 being more toxic than HolP33. In Bacillus thuringiensis, the simultaneous expression of both holins was necessary to observe lysis, suggesting that they may interact to form functional pores. The myoviruses Deep-Blue and Vp4 both encode a single candidate holin (HolB and HolV, respectively) with two transmembrane domains, whose genes are not located near the endolysin genes. Their function as holin proteins was confirmed as their expression in E. coli impaired cell growth and viability. The HolV expression in B. thuringiensis also led to bacterial lysis, which was enhanced by coexpressing the holin with its cognate endolysin. Despite similar organizations and predicted topologies, truncated mutants of the HolB and HolV proteins showed different toxicity levels, suggesting that differences in amino acid composition influence their lysis properties.IMPORTANCE The phage life cycle ends with the host cell lysis, thereby releasing new virions into the environment for the next round of bacterial infection. Nowadays, there is renewed interest in phages as biocontrol agents, primarily due to their ability to cause bacterial death through lysis. While endolysins, which mediate peptidoglycan degradation, have been fairly well described, the pore-forming proteins, referred to as holins, have been extensively characterized in only a few model phages, mainly infecting Gram-negative bacteria. In this work, we characterized the holins encoded by a siphovirus and two myoviruses targeting members of the Gram-positive Bacillus cereus group, which comprises closely related species, including the well-known Bacillus anthracis, B. cereus sensu stricto, and Bacillus thuringiensis. Overall, this paper provides the first experimental characterization of holins encoded by B. cereus phages and reveals versatile lysis mechanisms used by these phages.

STUDY OF THE AERODYNAMIC AND STRUCTURAL BEHAVIOR OF AN ARCHED BAMBOO GREENHOUSE

Greenhouses used for agricultural production are structures to partially control soil and climate conditions such as temperature, air humidity, radiation, wind, and atmospheric composition. Thus, according to Cermeño (1990) protected cultivation has quantitative and qualitative advantages compared to field cultivation since productivity in the first system can be 2 to 3 times higher. Bamboo is considered a sustainable material because it is renewable, absorbs carbon dioxide, uses solar energy, and is easily incorporated into nature at your life cycle end. The aim of this paper was to analyze the technical feasibility of bamboo in the construction of a greenhouse for protected cultivation. For this, the aerodynamic and structural behavior was analyzed in order to obtain the safety margins for this construction. With the safety margins it was determined that bamboo is a plausible material for the construction of these structures.

Design for Recycling Strategies Based on the Life Cycle Assessment and End of Life Options of Plastics in a Circular Economy

AbstractThe plastic economy, despite offering unique properties in fulfilling the functions of products in different industrial sectors over decades, has so far been mainly linear, that is, “take‐make and dispose” with only a small fraction of plastics being recycled worldwide. With ever‐increasing circular economy initiatives and the urge to conserve resources and prevent plastic pollution from affecting ecosystems, more emphasis on the resource recovery of plastic products after its use has been made over the last few years. It is necessary for manufacturers to understand the value chain as early as the design phase while manufacturing and distributing plastic products across the world. The current study provides an overview of the status quo of plastic waste management and analyzes the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) studies of different End‐of‐Life (EoL) options for plastics. Based on the LCA studies, a preliminary, country‐specific Circular Footprint (CF) is calculated and Design for Recycling (DfR) strategies are identified. Results show that the environmental impacts of different EoL options differ significantly for different plastics. The CF highlights the lack of data regarding the composition and recovery of plastics in different countries thus showing the necessity to consider the whole lifecycle when quantifying the environmental impacts of plastics.

Management of end–of–life photovoltaic panels based on stabilization using Portland cement

Solar Photovoltaic Panels (solar PVPs) have been widely used as an alternative to fossil fuels. However, in order for solar PVPs to be an environmentally friendly alternative, planning for their end of life cycle (EoL) is also required. This work addresses the suitability of a safe disposal of waste from EoL solar PVPs of 1st and 2nd generation solar PVPs by stabilization in cement mortars.The panels 1st generation EoL solar PVPs were initially mechanically and thermally pretreated (550 °C for 30 min), in order to remove the polymer sheets. A mixture of glass, silicon, electrodes, and ash was obtained and separated in a trommel. Experiments were carried out with three types of materials: separated semiconductor (silicon), glass and mixed waste. The mixed waste consisted of glass, silicon and ash as retrieved following manual removal of only the electrodes from the material generated by the pretreatment. 2nd generation EoL solar PVPs were shredded to dust and were tested without further treatment. A series of mortar samples containing 1–20% w/w of the aforementioned samples as aggregate substitute were prepared according to (CEN, EN 196-1, 2016) and their flexural and compressive strength was measured at ages of 2, 7 and 28 days. After 28d of curing, the samples were subjected to Toxicity Characteristic Leaching Procedure (TCLP) tests and leached metals were measured by ICP-OES.In both cases the TCLP tests results indicated that stabilization was successful since no significant or harmful metal amount was detected and consequently, safe disposal of the stabilized waste can be secured.

МОДЕЛЬ ПРОГНОЗИРОВАНИЯ РАЗЛИЧНЫХ ПРОЦЕССОВ НА ПРИМЕРЕ РАСПРОСТРАНЕНИЯ COVID-19 В РОССИЙСКОЙ ФЕДЕРАЦИИ

The paper provides a description of the mathematical model for various processes that have a life cycle (beginning and end). The implementation of the mathematical model is shown on the example of the spread of coronavirus in Russia over 2 years. The proposed model allows predicting the number of infected people in the coming period. The adequacy of the model for the process under consideration is determined by the accuracy of the root-mean-square error of 0.8%. The model can be used to predict temporal processes in social, demographic, medical, industrial and other areas.

Microorganisms in spent water-miscible metalworking fluids as a resource of strains for their disposal

Metalworking fluids (MWFs) are essential components for modern metalworking technologies. The volume of world consumption of diluted working solutions exceeds 20 million tons annually. Water miscible MWFs accounts to 90% of the global MWFs demand. Spent MWFs contain toxic xenobiotics and residues of biocides. They are hazardous to the environment and require complex processing and detoxification. Microorganisms are able to colonize MWFs and metabolize the majority of available substances (oils and additives). Microbial degradation is one of the most efficient ways to dispose of water-miscible MWFs. The species composition of microorganisms changes during the operation of the fluid. From the point of view of the selection of effective biodegradion agents, the composition of microorganism species at the end of the MWFs service life cycle is of high interest for the industry. The aim of this work is to study the fungal and bacterial diversity of the microbiota of the spent MWF both by the method of isolating axenic cultures of fungi and bacteria, and by NGS-based metagenomic profiling using 16S rRNA for bacteria and ITS for fungi, and evaluate the possibility of their growth in diluted to a working concentration MWFs that differ in composition. Multiplex sequencing revealed (share in the samples more than 0.01%) 18 bacterial genera: Achromobacter, Alcaligenes, Aquamicrobium, Bacillus, Bacteroides, Brevundimonas, Caulobacter, Chryseobacterium, Dechlorobacter, Desulfovibrio, Dysgonomonas, Ochrobactrum, Proteiniphilum, Pseudomonas, Ralstonia, Shewanella, Sphingomonas, Stenotrophomonas and 17 fungal genera: Alternaria, Aspergillus, Bjerkandera, Cadophora, Candida, Cladosporium, Cryptococcus, Cystobasidium, Didymella, Fusarium, Malassezia, Penicillum, Pithomyces, Saccharomyces, Talaromyces, Wickerhamomyces, Yarrowia. Six genera of fungi (Saccharomyces, Fusarium, Malassezia, Bjerkandera, Penicillum, Alternaria) were identified in all tested samples. Yarrowia, Saccharomyces, Cadophora and Fusarium dominated in different samples. The diversity of bacterial biota was significantly higher than that of fungi. There was no clear dominance of any kind of bacteria in any sample. The analysis of isolated axenic cultures revealed that bacteria Shewanella putrefaciens, Proteus sp., Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Stenotrophomonas maltophilia, Aeromonas hydrophila, Pseudomonas pseudoalcaligenes and fungi Fusarium solani, F. oxysporum, Yarrowia lipolytica, Candida metapsilosis were capable of growing in water-miscible MWFs. The data on the microorganism's species composition of the spent MWFs will make it possible to select species-specific DNA regions and design specific and sensitive test systems that can be used for identifying and evaluating the concentration of potential agents for the biodegradation of MWFs intended for disposal.

Life Cycle Analyses for Solar Thermal Collectors

Abstract The current drive towards including renewable and sustainable energy sources into energy consumption mix implies thorough studies on savings in materials, energy and waste management. Life cycle analyses are concerned with identification and quantification of each inputs and outputs of a product manufacturing process. This paper proposes complex life cycle analyses, that include assessment on inventory, analyses of energy payback time, life cycle cost and end of life applied to solar thermal collectors, as part of a solar conversion system. Results show that the categories with most impact, besides terrestrial toxicity, are human health, global warming and depletion of fossil fuels, that is, the main reasons to implement renewable energy sources.

Nanocellulose based carbon ink and its application in electrochromic displays and supercapacitors

Conventional electronics have been highlighted as a very unsustainable technology; hazardous wastes are produced both during their manufacturing but also, due to their limited recyclability, during their end of life cycle (e.g. disposal in landfill). In recent years additive manufacturing processes (i.e. screen printing) have attracted significant interest as a more sustainable approach to electronic manufacturing (printed electronics). Despite the field of printed electronics addressing some of the issues related to the manufacturing of electronics, many components and inks are still considered hazardous to the environment and are difficult to recycle. Here we present the development of a low environmental impact carbon ink based on a non-hazardous solvent and a cellulosic matrix (nanocellulose) and its implementation in electrochromic displays (ECDs) and supercapacitors. As part of the reported work, a different protocol for mixing carbon and cellulose nanofibrils (rotation mixing and high shear force mixing), nanocellulose of different grades and different carbon: nanocellulose ratios were investigated and optimized. The rheology profiles of the different inks showed good shear thinning properties, demonstrating their suitability for screen-printing technology. The printability of the developed inks was excellent and in line with those of reference commercial carbon inks. Despite the lower electrical conductivity (400 S m−1 for the developed carbon ink compared to 1000 S m−1 for the commercial inks), which may be explained by their difference in composition (carbon content, density and carbon derived nature) compared to the commercial carbon, the developed ink functioned adequately as the counter electrode in all screen-printed ECDs and even allowed for improved supercapacitors compared to those utilizing commercial carbon inks. In this sense, the supercapacitors incorporating the developed carbon ink in the current collector layer had an average capacitance = 97.4 mF cm−2 compared to the commercial carbon ink average capacitance = 61.6 mF cm−2. The ink development reported herein provides a step towards more sustainable printed green electronics.