Environmental Impact Criteria Research Articles

Application of life cycle assessment (LCA) to analyze the environmental loads of heavy machinery components

The heavy machinery used in mining and mineral processing generates significant environmental burdens that cause global warming and also negatively affect human health. This is caused by the use of large amounts of energy by these machines, including the amount of process heat, which generates negative environmental changes. As part of sustainable development, it is necessary to look for more friendly solutions, e.g., life cycle assessment (LCA). Therefore, the objective was to analyse the main environmental loads that arise during the extraction and processing of the component materials used in mining machines. In this case, the subject of the research was a reduction gear with a high utilisation rate in excavators and forklifts used in mining. The environmental impact criteria taken into account in the analysis were ozone depletion, human toxicity, and eutrophication. The analysis was carried out using the OpenLCA programme with the ecoinvent database. The results of the analysis showed that in the extraction and processing phase of the reduction gear materials, the main environmental loads arise for selected criteria arise, among others: during coke production, oil and gas extraction, natural gas transport, and hard coal exploitation. The results of the analysis may contribute to the sustainable development of machines in the mining industry and may be useful in the production of new mining machines in order to eliminate their negative impact throughout their life cycle.

A Study on the Viability of Adopting Battery Electric Vehicles in Bus Rapid Transit in Brazil Using the AHP Method

Public transport is essential to provide urban mobility, and cities need to offer a fast, comfortable, secure, and low-pollutant public transport mode to attract passengers and reduce private car use. Despite metros, trains, and light rail systems being desirable, the cost of implementation and low flexibility make bus services the best option for many cities. One solution for improving bus service systems is the implementation of bus rapid transit systems that are composed of buses running in segregated lines with pre-payment fares and level boarding platforms in stations. However, the main challenge of bus systems is the use of engines fueled by diesel, which is extremely polluted. One possible solution is the use of battery buses; but are they really feasible regarding daily operation cost? In this paper, we investigate the adoption of battery buses in comparison to diesel engines in a BRT system using municipal data from São Paulo, Brazil, as a reference. We collected operational data from the Sao Paulo city government transport agency and data from the literature to produce an analytic hierarchy process (AHP) model, which allowed us to compare both systems. The AHP model considered a triple-bottom-line perspective using social, economic, and environmental impact criteria. The result showed that the initial costs of acquisition can be a barrier, but in the long run, cities adopting battery buses in their BRT system can benefit from the effects of reduction in gas emissions and longer lifetimes of electric bus components. Moreover, the results showed that the adoption of battery buses in BRT systems depends on local government subsidies being implemented.

Sensitivity analysis of design variables in life-cycle environmental impacts of buildings

Buildings are responsible for a large portion of global energy consumption and carbon emissions. Improvements in building design contribute to reducing environmental impacts of buildings. In this context, a crucial issue is to understand which design variables should be considered while which variables could be negligible. The objective of this study is to develop a framework for assessing the influence of various design variables throughout the design process in the environmental impacts of a building over its life cycle. This methodological framework combined building information modelling and life cycle assessment tools and a global sensitivity analysis using the Morris elementary effects method. A residential building was applied to demonstrate the developed framework. The influence of six design variables in early design stages (including, floor area, aspect ratio, floor height, orientation, window-to-wall ratio and number of floors), nine variables in detailed design stages (including, structure type of external and internal walls, type of insulation material for external and internal walls, insulation material for floors, waterproofing and insulation material for roof, type of window frame, and glazing type), and four variables in construction design stages (including, type of finishing for external walls, internal walls and floors, and roof tiles) are examined. Three environmental impact criteria (including, embodied, operational, and life-cycle environmental impacts) of a building are considered. The results identified the most influential variables throughout the design process, highlighting aspect ratio in early design stage, the structure and insulation materials for walls in detailed design stages, and the roof title in construction design stages. The outcomes of this research can assist in understanding the importance of design variables in each design stage throughout the design process of a building.

Smart-Plant Decision Support System (SP-DSS): Defining a multi-criteria decision-making framework for the selection of WWTP configurations with resource recovery

The development of the Smart-Plant Decision Support System (SP-DSS) is presented, which helps to find the optimal water resource recovery facility (WRRF) configuration for a specific case. A general plant superstructure is defined to allow the evaluation of different combinations among the available process unit options, considering technical, economic, and environmental impact criteria. The complete evaluation is based on a five-step framework: (i) design problem set-up, (ii) wastewater inflow generation, (iii) superstructure generation and plant-wide model simulation under dynamic conditions, (iv) estimation of multi-criteria objective values (greenhouse gas emissions, accumulation of effluent violations, effluent quality index, net present value, system readiness level and plant land area), and (v) design configuration multi-criteria sorting with the technique for order of preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS). SP-DSS application is shown comparing the mainstream shortcut enhanced phosphorus and polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) recovery (SCEPPHAR) technology with a conventional anaerobic/anoxic/aerobic (A2O) configuration for a medium size WWTP (Manresa, Spain). The comparison shows both configurations allow meeting discharge limits, and among other criteria, the SCEPPHAR novel configuration, with respect to A2O, shows higher pollutant contents in the effluent (3.30 vs 2.34 gPoll/m3), higher capital expenditures (CAPEX 0.191 vs 0.130 €/m3), lower operational expenditures (OPEX 0.397 vs 0.515 €/m3), lower required tariff (0.654 vs 0.674 €/m3) and higher greenhouse gas emissions (GHG 0.19 vs 0.14 kgCO2/m3). Overall, TOPSIS sorting indicates A2O is still the best configuration for this specific case.

ALIMENTACIÓN Y SUSTENTABILIDAD: PROPUESTAS DIETARIAS SOSTENIBLES Y POSIBLES EN LA MESA DE LOS ARGENTINOS

Introduction: Argentina faces the challenge of increasing food insecurity rates, widespread malnutrition due to excess weight, unhealthy diets and environmental impact of food systems. The report of the EAT-Lancet Commission (2019) presented a proposal for a "Planetary Diet" laying the foundations for a predominant consumption of vegetable foods and changes in production systems. The proposal involves significant changes in the local eating pattern. This work has the objective of designing dietary proposals based on nutritional evidence recommendations and incorporating environmental impact criteria as well as being sustainable in sociocultural and economic dimensions. Methods: Food consumption recommendations were consolidated based on a review of the nutritional evidence and a matrix was built to prioritize dietary changes based on estimates of the environmental impact of foods consumed by argentine population. Two healthy and sustainable proposals were designed, one based on the characteristic consumption pattern and the second recognizing the growth of the population consuming plant-based diets. Results: The proposed consumptions have a high nutrient density and a lower theoretical environmental impact in relation to the current consumption pattern and compared to the Dietary Guidelines for the Argentine Population (GAPA) Higher consumption of vegetables, fruits, legumes, grains, whole grains and nuts and a decrease in meat, especially red meat and in foods for occasional consumption are proposed. Conclusions: The work introduces in the agenda two dietary proposals -food baskets- that meets criteria of healthy eating and the concept of sustainability. Key words: healthy eating; sustainability; diet quality; dietary proposals; plant-based diet.

THE ROAD TOWARDS A 100% RENEWABLE ELECTRICITY MIX IN THE FRENCH ISLAND OF MIQUELON

Developing a sustainable electricity mix in an island microgrid is a complex process. In order to deliver an electricity that is reliable, low-carbon and affordable compared to a conventional thermal generation, it is necessary both to choose the right technologies for generation, storage and possibly other sources of flexibility, and to size them correctly, while putting in place energy efficiency measures. In the present paper, a focus is made on the case of Miquelon, a French overseas island near the Canadian coast. The energy transition project consider wind, photovoltaic and biomass as the possible renewable generation technologies, and lithium-ion batteries and hydrogen for storage. The study aims at delivering a comprehensive comparison of electricity mixes based on these technologies, on both economic and environmental impact criteria.

Addressing the Role of Climate Change in Agriculture and Mexico-US Immigration

Among the greatest threats of climate change is the significant impact on mass displacement, particularly as it relates to Mexico-US immigration. Low crop yields from worsening climate conditions have been linked to increased migration of Mexican farmers. With a projected 4.2 million additional migrants in the foreseeable future, it poses a contemporary environmental, social, and political dilemma. This policy brief analyzes several provision proposals to be adopted into the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), as evaluated under economic cost, equity, environmental impact, and feasibility criteria. My research concludes that the most effective and direct provision proposal is the implementation of adaptive farming to protect small-scale farmers against the adverse effects of climate change. The policy benefits both American and Mexican governments by mitigating financial losses from low crop yield, limiting Mexico-US immigration, and building climate resilience for farmers. This serves as a model for addressing the global increase of climate refugees and can help predict climate change-driven migration patterns in rural areas around the world.

Optimal microgrid power supply system for Nigerian detached communities: Environmental impact and energy cost criteria


 
 
 Climate change is a major contemporary global challenge. For developing countries like Nigeria, further challenge is poor power supply. Traditional power supply strategy has been through fossil-fuel based macrogrids. While most developed countries are replacing some macrogrids with renewable energy based microgrids, developing countries like Nigeria still maintain the status quo. This study intends to contribute to knowledge in the management of climate change and power supply in Nigeria through the adoption of microgrids as power supply strategy. In the study, data collected from a detached energy consuming community in Nigeria was used in a simulation using HOMER software for five different scenarios of energy resources combination, based on environmental impact and energy cost criteria. Results indicate that microgrids combining solar photovoltaic (SPV) and grid connection with battery energy storage (BES) are best in on-grid detached communities while microgrids combining diesel generators and SPV with BESare good for off-grid communities.
 
 

PRIORITAS PENANGANAN JALAN KABUPATEN PIDIE MENGGUNAKAN METODE ANALISIS MULTI KRITERIA (AMK)

Pidie District has a district road length of 1,015 Km and is divided into 445 roads. The lack of funds makes it difficult to determine the priority of handling the road, it is necessary to examine the method of setting road priority in accordance with the needs of the community. The purpose of this study was to obtain criteria weights based on perceptions of importance between criteria using 15 stakeholder respondents and to determine the priority order of handling road infrastructure in Pidie District due to limited funding capacity in Pidie District Government using the Multi Criteria Analysis (AMK) method accessibility, regional development, economic sector development, cost aspects, environmental impact and road damage as the selection criteria. The results of this study are that road damage criteria get the highest weight, which is 0.197, then environmental impact criteria 0.190, economic development criteria 0.184, accessibility criteria for accessibility 0.152, regional development criteria 0.147 and cost aspect criteria 0.130. This can be interpreted that the aspect of road damage is a major consideration in determining the priority of road development in Pidie District but not significant to other criteria. Based on the weighting and scoring of these criteria, a sequence of priorities for road handling in Pidie District is obtained, where Jalan Bangkeh - Leupu is the first priority with a performance value of 4.152

Simulation and visualization of material flows in sanitation systems for streamlined sustainability assessment.

New and alternative sanitation systems are increasingly discussed and find their way into implementation. However, discussions on sanitation concepts often are held in a rather emotional way. Furthermore, not all the available sanitation concepts might be known to the decision maker. The work presented here attempts to contribute to a good discussion and decision making process by compiling available technologies, by defining easy-to-implement criteria for a sustainability assessment method and by integrating these results into a simulation tool which allows to visualize the related resource fluxes (e.g. those on nutrients, such as N, P and K) and to analyse different sanitation options with regard to their capital and operational costs and with regard to environmental impact criteria such as greenhouse gas emissions. Whilst the calculations are to be considered as being approximate in their nature (due to uncertainties or lack of suitable input data), this tool allows the planners, with sometimes little modelling experience, to consider the characteristics of sanitation systems. Whilst starting from earlier work, such as Eawag's Sanitation Compendium and work on material flow analysis, work described in this contribution merges resource flux modelling, easy-to-use simulation and visualization and methods of life cycle assessment and life cycle costing. The simulation tool is freely available on https://www.ifak.eu/en/products/sampsons.

Process Planning Optimization With Energy Consumption Reduction From a Novel Perspective: Mathematical Modeling and a Dynamic Programming-Like Heuristic Algorithm

Process planning can be deemed as an important component in manufacturing systems. It bridges the gap between designing and manufacturing by specifying the manufacturing requirements and details to convert a part from raw materials to the finished form. For the purpose of low carbon emission, this paper pays attention to both technical performance measures and environmental impact criteria. In this problem, a part may have more than one process plans and only one process plan can finally be adopted. Due to the non-deterministic polynomial-hardness, it is rather difficult to conduct operation selection, machine determination, operation sequencing, and energy consumption reduction simultaneously with various constraints from technical requirements or the shop floor status. A novel position-based mixed integer linear programming model is developed to reduce total production time and the total energy consumption. The energy consumption coefficient matrix is proposed to evaluate the energy consumption in process planning. Because of the complexity in solving the model, this research proposes dynamic programming-like heuristic algorithm to tackle this problem. The weighted sum method is applied in multi-objective optimization and three typical instances with operation flexibility, sequencing flexibility, and processing flexibility are used to test the proposed algorithm. According to the results, both the total production time and the energy consumption criteria are optimized; in the best case, the energy consumption after optimization takes only 21.2% of the one before optimization. On average, about 40.9% of the total energy consumption can be reduced after optimization. Computational results also show that the proposed algorithm is generally better than the genetic algorithm. This research gives a novel perspective to reduce energy consumption in the process planning stage.

Environmental and cost optimal design of a biomass–Wind–PV electricity generation system

Abstract This work describes a methodology to optimize a grid-connected hybrid renewable energy system (HRES) that hybridizes photovoltaic, wind and forest biomass energy sources taking into account cost and environmental impact criteria from a life-cycle perspective. The developed model has been tested in a sample township in central Catalonia. The results show that life-cycle cost and life-cycle environmental impact are contradicting criteria. Low environmental impact layouts highly dependent on RES have higher costs than the ones more reliant on the electricity from the public grid, which present high environmental impact. A sensitivity analysis has been performed to analyze the trade-offs between different energy sources of the system, showing that wind power is the RE source with higher impact on the system since it presents lower cost and lower environmental impact, compared with biomass and photovoltaic power. Another important conclusion that can be drawn from such sensitivity analysis is that improving the rate of return on investment in HRES would be a very beneficial measure to encourage the use of renewable energies for electricity production, as it has significant positive outcomes in terms of both cost and environmental impact reduction.

Assessment and optimization of a new sextuple energy system incorporated with concentrated photovoltaic thermal - Geothermal using exergy, economic and environmental concepts

This research presents a thermodynamic, economic and environmental impact assessments of a new renewable based sextuple system made up of an organic Rankine cycle, magnetic refrigeration cycle, proton exchange membrane electrolyzer, date dryer unit and concentrated photovoltaic thermal collectors delivering power electricity, cooling and heating effects, hydrogen, oxygen and dried date productions. The impacts of the substantial design parameters on the annual thermal and exergy efficiencies, total product cost and environmental impact rates are evaluated. From parametric analysis, PEM electrolyzer current density affects the product cost rate of the system less than other parameters within 3.05% and turbine inlet pressure yields the reduction in the total product environmental impact rate by about 3.8%. Moreover, an elitist non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm and LINMAP decision maker are employed to identify the final optimum answer of the desired system. From optimization outcomes, the optimum performance of the system shows 18.3% reduction for cost and 24.9% improvement for environmental impact criteria. The annual thermal efficiency is improved about 27.4% and annual exergy efficiency gets 2.12 times. Under the optimum conditions, the isobutane mass flow rate reaches the maximum value of 35 kg/s and net power output increases within 50.25% in relation to the base point.

STAKEHOLDER OPINION-BASED COMPARISON OF LIFE CYCLE ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS OF ELECTRICITY GENERATION IN TURKEY WITH SELECTED EUROPEAN COUNTRIES

The life cycle environmental impacts of electricity generation in Turkey were compared to those of Denmark, France, and Poland. The reason for selecting these particular countries for benchmarking was the fact that electricity generation in these countries is dominated mostly by a single source, that is wind, nuclear, and coal, respectively. OpenLCA software and European Life Cycle Database database were used, CML2001 method was employed. The life cycle analysis approach was from cradle to grave. The environmental impact criteria which were studied were acidification, global warming potential, depletion of abiotic resources – elements, depletion of abiotic resources - fossil fuels, eutrophication, freshwater aquatic ecotoxicity, human toxicity, marine aquatic ecotoxicity, ozone layer depletion, photochemical oxidation, and terrestrial ecotoxicity. In addition to comparing the four countries in terms of these individual impacts, the overall environmental impact scores for all countries were calculated, once with equal weights for all impacts and once with weights which were determined by acquiring the stakeholder opinions via an online questionnaire. In both cases, Poland turned out to have the highest environmental impact due to the high share coal in the electricity mix, and Turkey came second after Poland. Equal-weight-analysis returned Denmark as the country with the cleanest electricity generation infrastructure whereas stakeholder-weight-analysis results showed that it was France who had the lowest environmental impact. This result was attributed to the high weight of global warming potential and France’s nuclear-energy-based electricity generation system has a very low global warming potential when compared to other three countries. It was concluded that the prospective addition of nuclear energy, solar energy, and clean coal technologies into Turkey’s electricity mix shall reduce the overall environmental impact of electricity generation in Turkey significantly.

Optimal selection of Iron and Steel wastewater treatment technology using integrated multi-criteria decision-making techniques and fuzzy logic

Abstract Selecting the optimal wastewater treatment technology (WTT) is one of the biggest challenges in the sustainable management of industrial wastewaters. In Iran’s economy, the strategic role of the steel sector highlights its importance in sustainability assessments. Using Iran’s steel industry as a case study, this paper develops an integrated methodology for determining the most appropriate WTT. Since, the most common approach for technology evaluation, in both developed and developing countries, is expert judgment, this issue is studied by means of a multi-dimensional approach that considers the sector characteristics; the interaction of the technical, environmental and economic aspects; and the specific preferences in developing countries. The proposed modelling framework presents a rational decision-making process based on two multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) techniques including the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and the Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) in combination with fuzzy logic to make use of the combined benefits of several methods The methodology is carried out as a stepwise procedure and the fuzzy concept is introduced in both the weighting and ranking procedures. The most commonly used industrial WTTs in the steel industry are identified and ranked with respect to the six evaluation criteria and their thirty associated indicators. Finally, the results from different models, with crisp and fuzzy values, are compared to propose a straightforward and pragmatic operational decision tool. The study indicates that a hybrid model of AHP, TOPSIS and fuzzy logic offers better results and provides a higher degree of confidence for sophisticated judgments. According to the findings, the experts largely prefer the more advanced treatment systems, such as “Electrolytic splitting with Reverse osmosis and Evaporation in addition to the conventional technologies” because of their high system efficiency and compatibility with environmental impact criteria. This approach can be applied for other sectors at any industry level of decision-making—from the level of individual plants to national.

Environmental impact assessment of renewables and conventional fuels for different end use purposes

In this study, we present a comparative environmental impact assessment of renewables and conventional fossil fuels for electricity and hydrogen generation. The conventional fossil fuels investigated in this study are coal, oil, and natural gas. Renewables considered in this study are geothermal, hydropower, ocean, solar, and wind energies. Furthermore, nuclear and biomass energies are taken into consideration while assessing environmental impact and performances. Environmental impact criteria considered in this study are CO2, NOx, and SO2 emissions, land use, water consumption, water quality of discharge, solid waste and ground contamination, and biodiversity. For comparison purposes, all collected data are normalised and ranked between 0 and 3 while 0 giving highest negative environmental impact and 3 giving lowest negative environmental impact. Our results showed that overall, in terms of both electricity and hydrogen production, oceans give the highest rankings (2.71 for electricity and 2.73 for hydrogen). Coal has the lowest rankings in terms of environmental impact (0.26 for electricity and 0.30 for hydrogen).

Environmental impact assessment of renewables and conventional fuels for different end use purposes

In this study, we present a comparative environmental impact assessment of renewables and conventional fossil fuels for electricity and hydrogen generation. The conventional fossil fuels investigated in this study are coal, oil, and natural gas. Renewables considered in this study are geothermal, hydropower, ocean, solar, and wind energies. Furthermore, nuclear and biomass energies are taken into consideration while assessing environmental impact and performances. Environmental impact criteria considered in this study are CO2, NOx, and SO2 emissions, land use, water consumption, water quality of discharge, solid waste and ground contamination, and biodiversity. For comparison purposes, all collected data are normalised and ranked between 0 and 3 while 0 giving highest negative environmental impact and 3 giving lowest negative environmental impact. Our results showed that overall, in terms of both electricity and hydrogen production, oceans give the highest rankings (2.71 for electricity and 2.73 for hydrogen). Coal has the lowest rankings in terms of environmental impact (0.26 for electricity and 0.30 for hydrogen).

Probabilistic risk assessment from potential exposures to the public applied for innovative nuclear installations

Potential exposures are those that may occur as a result of unanticipated operational performance or accidents. Potential exposure situations are probabilistic in nature because they depend on uncertain events such as equipment failure, operator errors or external initiators beyond the control of the operator. Consequently, there may exist a range of possible radiological impacts that need to be considered. In this paper a Level 3 Probabilistic Safety Assessment (PSA) for a hypothetical scenario relevant to Innovative Nuclear Energy Systems (INS) was conducted using computer code MACCS (MELCOR Accident Consequence Code Systems). The acceptability of an INS was analyzed taking into account the general requirement that relocation or evacuation measures must not be necessary beyond the site boundary. In addition, deterministic modeling of the accident consequences for the critical meteorological conditions was carried out using the JRODOS decision support system (Real-time On-line Decision Support system for off-site emergency management in Europe). The approach used for dose and risk assessment from potential exposure of accidental releases and their comparison with acceptance criteria are presented. The methodology described can be used as input to the licensing procedure and engineering design considerations to help satisfy relevant health and environmental impact criteria for fission or fusion nuclear installations.

Computer-aided process engineering for environmental efficiency: Industrial drying of biomass

ABSTRACTThe idea of taking into account environmental impact criteria in the process design becomes a necessity for both the industry and governments, due to increased binding regulations. Moreover, to address the issue of integrating sustainable processes, environmental impact must be weighed and balanced against other concerns, such as economic performance, product quality, and long-term sustainability. Therefore, this study introduces a methodology for environmental impact minimization and optimization of multiple conflicting criteria. A general eco-design method for biomass drying process is proposed. The main target is to develop an assessment computer-aided process engineering tool that compares environmental impacts of different operating conditions and fuel types to support decision-makers for an improved compliance to environmental criterion and sustainability.

Design of a GIS and multi-criteria based land evaluation procedure for sustainable land-use planning at the regional level

Designof comprehensive, standardized land evaluation tools is challenged by constraints of scale, data availability, validity, and mathematical translation and combination of diagnostic indicators. This study aims to design a GIS-based multi-criteria land suitability analysis that integrates agro-ecological aptitude, environmental impact and socio-economic feasibility criteria in a step-wise procedure combining recent advances in indicator selection, evaluation and weighing – exploiting information from various data sources – with functional mathematical combination procedures. The procedure involves: (1) selection of diagnostic land characteristics, (2) design of the corresponding evaluation criteria and consequent scoring of the diagnostic characteristics, (3) arithmetic combination of the scored characteristics into partial performance indices for agro-ecological aptitude, environmental impact and socio-economic feasibility, and (4) classification of the performance indices into aptitude, impact, and feasibility classes and determination of the overall land suitability class of the proposed land use. The tool’s performance and applicability proved successful in a case study, identifying expansion zones for rubber in Quang Tri province, Vietnam. Local expert knowledge, relevant literature sources, factor-yield relationships and the discriminating power of different land characteristics within the given environment were successfully integrated to select, score and weigh diagnostic land characteristics. Explicit distinction between factors and constraints depending on the fuzziness of their spatial patterns, and between limiting and non-limiting factors depending on their impact and interaction, furthermore allowed to apply the most relevant arithmetic combination procedures.