Environmental Load Reduction Research Articles

How ICT can contribute to realize a sustainable society in the future: a CGE approach

Many information and communications technology (ICT) services have become commonplace worldwide and are certain to continue to spread faster than before, particularly along with the commercialization of 5G and movement restrictions in response to the COVID-19 Pandemic. Although there is a concern that ICT equipment usage may increase power consumption and emit greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, ICT has also been contributing to reducing GHG emissions through improved productivity and reduced mobility. This research targeted the main ICT services used in Japan and adopted a dynamic national computable general equilibrium model to quantitatively analyze future impacts on economic growth and GHG emission reduction until 2030 by using these ICTs, while considering both the increase in power consumption of ICT itself and the reduction in environmental load in other sectors. The results showed that the spread of ICT services, especially some artificial intelligence-based services, can improve productivity in most sectors through labor-saving and contribute to improving overall gross domestic product (GDP). Additionally, increased efficiency of logistics and manufacturing can greatly reduce the input of oil and coal products and so greatly contribute to GHG emission reduction. In 2030, compared with the baseline scenario in which all technology levels are fixed at current levels, at least 1% additional GDP growth and 4% GHG emission reduction can be expected by the targeted introduction of ICT in the ICT accelerated scenario in which the technology level of ICT accelerates. This also means ICT can potentially decouple the economy from the environment.

Sustainable development strategy of beverage straws for environmental load reduction

The destruction of the ecological environment by white pollution is a serious threat to the survival and development of mankind, and the small drinking straws have become the main plastic waste increasing the environmental load due to their huge daily use. In line with the background of the strongest “Plastic bags ban”, plastic drinking straws are completely removed from the shelves, and the sustainable development strategy of drinking straws is explored from many aspects, such as the development of new environmentally friendly material drinking straws, beverage price incentive mechanism, public guidance and brand reputation win-win, policy promotion and market activation.

Farmer perceptions of dairy farm antibiotic use and transport pathways as determinants of contaminant loads to the environment

Agricultural antibiotic contamination into milk and beef products has been considered extensively, but antibiotic transport into soil and water environments is less regulated and studied. Farmer perceptions of these transport processes are critical to understanding how antibiotics reach soils and surface waters and what management strategies can be implemented to reduce environmental antibiotic loads. We have conducted semi-structured interviews with twenty-seven dairy farmers in central New York to understand farmer perceptions of environmental transport of antibiotics and decisions that reduce environmental antibiotic loads. Interviews were qualitatively analyzed and coded using thematic analysis. We found that farmers extensively considered transport of antibiotics into milk and beef, while consideration of antibiotic transport into manure was less common, and no farmers discussed antibiotic transport from carcasses into soil from on-farm animal mortality. Farmers highlighted decisions that reduce antibiotic environmental loads through disease prevention actions, usage of non-antibiotic treatments, and culturing bacterial samples before antibiotic treatment. Farmers did not cite reduction of environmental antibiotic loads as a driver of their waste management decisions. Farmers perceived antibiotic usage was already minimized on farms in the region, suggesting future environmental antibiotic contamination mitigation strategies should focus on waste management pathways.

Use of Bulk Industrial Wastes in the Production of Glass Foam Materials

Research on the recycling of bulk industrial wastes in the production of granular and block foam materials is reviewed. The possibilities and prospects for obtaining materials with high technical and operational metrics and environmental load reduction are shown discussed.

호주 실외놀이터의 친환경적 특성 연구

In the era of the 4th revolution where autonomy, creativity, and convergence are emphasized, it is very important to foster children"s possibilities through play. In particular, playing outdoors without hesitation opens up more possibilities. Accordingly, as interest in the importance of eco-friendly play spaces as well as re-lighting on play has grown in Korea, many ecological playgrounds have been created around the area from 2014. However, the realization of an eco-playground in the true meaning of an eco-friendly playground is not well implemented. Therefore, in this study, based on the design philosophy of “the best playground is nature,” we analyzed the eco-friendly characteristics of Australia"s outdoor playground using natural elements as much as possible and presented the main planning elements of the eco-friendly outdoor playground. Accordingly, 10 playgrounds with the scale of district play and neighborhood play spaces were selected in three areas in Australia, and observation and survey were conducted through direct field trips. we evaluated the environment-friendliness of these playgrounds in the 8 fields(location and placement, ecological environment, play space, play equipment and facilities, additional facilities, materials and resources, energy saving, environmental load reduction) according to the levels(suitable, partial reflection, unsuitable, non-reflection) of reflection of eco-friendly planning factors. we evaluated the environment-friendliness of these playgrounds in the 8 fields(location and placement, ecological environment, play space, play equipment and facilities, additional facilities, materials and resources, energy saving, environmental load reduction) according to the levels(suitable, partial reflection, non-reflection) of reflection of eco-friendly planning factors. The following is the summary of the results about the reflection of eco-friendly planning factors. In terms of "suitable": location and placement(98.3%), play equipment and facilities(91.2%), play space(88.6%), environmental load reduction (88.3%), ecological environment(76.9%), additional facilities(77.6%) and materials and resources(70.4%) were higher than others in Korea. In terms of "non-reflection": energy saving (65%), additional facilities(18%), materials and resources(8.3%) showed that overall eco-friendly planning elements were actively reflected except for energy saving.

Xylanase and Direct-Fed Microbials (DFM) Potential for Improvement of Live Performance, Energy Digestibility, and Reduction of Environmental Microbial Load of Broilers.

The challenge of identifying alternatives to subtherapeutic levels of antibiotic growth promoters (AGP) in animal feed has led to increased interest in feed additives such as exogenous enzymes and direct-fed microbials (DFM). Six corn soy-based dietary treatments were designed to investigate the effect of high-efficiency xylanase alone, Bacillus spp. probiotics alone, and their combination vs. a commonly used antibiotic growth promoter (bacitracin methylene disalicylate; BMD) on live performance and environmental Clostridium perfringens load of broiler chickens with eight replicate pens per treatment. Diets were as follows: standard diet (positive control; PC); 130 kcal/kg reduced-energy diet (negative control; NC); NC with xylanase (NC + Xy); NC with probiotics (NC + Pro); NC with xylanase and probiotics mix (NC + XyPro); and NC with BMD (NC + BMD). Data were analyzed as one-way ANOVA. At 35 and 42 days, birds fed with NC + XyPro and NC + BMD were heavier (P < 0.05) than birds fed with NC. Improvement in feed conversion ratio (FCR) (P = 0.0001) was observed from 1 to 42 days by ~3 points in both NC + XyPro and NC + BMD compared to NC. The NC + XyPro reduced lesion scores by 66% compared to PC and NC. Litter C. perfringens cell count was reduced by ~16% with supplementation of XyPro or BMD. It can be concluded that a blend of xylanase (10 XU/g feed) and Bacillus spp. [1 × 105 colony forming units (CFU)/g feed] can be used as an alternative to AGP in low-energy broiler diets.

Climate change overtakes coastal engineering as the dominant driver of hydrological change in a large shallow lagoon

Abstract. Ecosystems in shallow micro-tidal lagoons are particularly sensitive to hydrologic changes. Lagoons are complex transitional ecosystems between land and sea, and the signals of direct human disturbance can be confounded by variability of the climate system, but from an effective estuary management perspective, the effects of climate versus direct human engineering interventions need to be identified separately. This study developed a 3D finite-volume hydrodynamic model to assess changes in hydrodynamics of the Peel–Harvey Estuary, a large shallow lagoon with restricted connection with ocean; this was done by considering how attributes such as water retention time, salinity and stratification have responded to a range of factors, focusing on the drying climate trend and the opening of a large artificial channel over the period from 1970 to 2016, and how they will evolve under current climate projections. The results show that the introduction of the artificial channel has fundamentally modified the flushing and mixing within the lagoon, and the drying climate has changed the hydrology by comparable magnitudes to that of the opening of the artificial channel. The results also highlight the complexity of their interacting impacts. Firstly, the artificial channel successfully improved the estuary flushing by reducing average water ages by 20–110 d, while in contrast the reduced precipitation and catchment inflow had a gradual opposite effect on the water ages; during the wet season this has almost counteracted the reduction brought about by the channel. Secondly, the drying climate caused an increase in the salinity of the lagoon by 10–30 PSU (Practical Salinity Unit); whilst the artificial channel increased the salinity during the wet season, it has reduced the likelihood of hypersalinity (&gt;40 PSU) during the dry season in some areas. The opening of the artificial channel was also shown to increase the seawater fluxes and salinity stratification, while the drying climate acted to reduce the salinity stratification in the main body of the estuary. The impacts also varied spatially in this large lagoon. The southern estuary, which has the least connection with the ocean through the natural channel, is the most sensitive to climate change and the opening of the artificial channel. The projected future drying climate is shown to slightly increase the retention time and salinity in the lagoon and increase the hypersalinity risk in the rivers. The significance of these changes for nutrient retention and estuary ecology are discussed, highlighting the importance of these factors when setting up monitoring programmes, environmental flow strategies and nutrient load reduction targets.

Criteria for Assessing the Energy-Ecological Effectiveness of using the Sludge of Waste Treatment Plants as Components of Liquid Composite Fuels

The challenging issues in the sustainable development of a state currently are the problems of protecting the environment from contamination, increasing the capacity of systems for recycling and reusing water, and the development of resource saving and non-waste technologies. The authors have developed and introduced the technology of hydrocavitation activation of liquid hydrocarbons to create composite fuels that can contain off-spec hydrocarbons, including stale fuel oil, oil tanker outwashes, stillage bottoms, coal, bio mass, industrial wastes and the sludge of wastewater treatment plants. The main criteria were defined for assessing the energy-ecological effectiveness of using sludge in municipal wastewater as a component of composite fuels. The criteria are as follows: the calorific capacity of the fuel mixture, the energy effectiveness of its use as an energy resource, consumer properties, and the environmental performance of combusting this kind of fuel. Using these criteria during the production and combustion of composite fuels obtained with hydrocavitation activation allows producing high-quality fuel mixtures with specified thermophysical and consumer properties. This opens the prospects of more effective usage of hydrocarbon resources and of solving simultaneously two problems: the production of surplus energy and environmental load reduction during the disposal and neutralisation of moisture-containing waste.&#x0D; Keywords: sludge; hydrocarbon resources; hydrocavitation activation; composite fuels; waste disposal and neutralisation

Reduction of tunnel blasting induced ground vibrations using advanced electronic detonators

Blasting has been widely used for economical and rapid rock excavation in civil and mining engineering but has great loads, such as vibrations and noises, on the surrounding environment in the case of urban areas near dwellings and important structures. In this study, for the purpose of environmental load reduction, blasting tests were conducted at a tunnel construction site using advanced electronic detonators in which arbitrary ignition times could be set. The test results showed that the peak amplitude of the vibration waveform from each of the blast holes follows the Weibull distribution and that the wave propagation time depends on the location of the blast hole on the tunnel face. The superposition method proposed from these findings reproduced the vibration waveforms in delay blasting from the seed waveform recorded in single-shot blasting. The optimum delay interval determined accurately from the superposition method was almost equal to the one simply estimated from the method with the autocorrelation coefficient or a frequency analysis of the vibration waveform in single-shot blasting. These simple methods were validated at another tunnel construction site and found to be useful for estimating the optimum delay interval from single-shot blasting at each tunnel face on each day. This study is based on the practical consideration of actual tunnel blasting and construction, and these proposed methods will be widely applied to other tunnel construction sites.

Energy Recovery from Olive Pomace by Hydrothermal Carbonization on Hypothetical Industrial Scale: a LCA Perspective

This work aimed to analyze and compare the environmental impacts of hydrothermal carbonization (HTC) process performed on olive pomace, aimed at energy recovery. Twelve alternative pathways, considering variable process conditions in terms of temperature (260, 280 and 305 °C), heat recovery layouts and the subsequent combustion of the generated solid product, were analyzed. Results, related only to the processing phases (i.e. without including avoided effects), showed, as expected, that the final environmental performance depends on the HTC process temperature. Moreover, it was noted that the resulting impacts are from 1.4 to 2.0 lower for the layouts with heat recovery, for all the analyzed impact categories, with exception of Freshwater Toxicity. It was also reported that by substituting the fuel in marginal processes of heat production, environmental load reduction potential, regarding all impact categories, can be achieved. The highest benefits were achieved by substituting coal with HTC pellet in the heat production, followed by wood pellets and natural gas. Concerning the contribution analysis, the combustion processes of HTC and wood pellet represent the major contributions to the Climate Change and Acidification impacts, the combustion processes of HTC and wood pellet represent the major contributions, around the 95% and the 75% of the total, respectively, for the cases with the highest HTC temperature and no recovery scheme. For the Eutrophication potential, biomass production contributes significantly to the final effect. Regarding the Freshwater Ecotoxicity, the major part of the impact is coming from the HTC process and the relative liquid phase emissions assumed to be composed by phenols and furfurals released from the process. However, this part of the system needs to be further analyzed in detail.

Application of biomass by-product lignin stabilized soils as sustainable Geomaterials: A review

Due to the increasing concerns on environmental pollution, fossil energy shortage, and sustainable development, the recycling of industrial by-products had become a popular practice worldwide. Chemical stabilization of problematic soils with biomass by-product lignin was being considered as one of the viable answers to the consumption of such lignin stockpiles and the reduction of environmental loading. This paper summarized the production and physicochemical properties of by-product lignin collected from paper mills and reviewed the state of the art of this lignin stabilized soils as engineering materials. In addition, the potential focuses requiring further study to promote lignin stabilization technology were expected. The results showed that physicochemical properties of by-product lignin were mainly controlled by plant biomass and production technology, which should be clearly examined before field application. By-product lignin exhibited a satisfactory performance of improving engineering properties of both cohesive soils and noncohesive soils with respect to strength, erosion resistance, and durability. The precipitated cementing materials bonded particles and filled pores in the soil matrix, while their formation mechanism had not clearly explored yet. By-product lignin stabilized soils suffered from performance deterioration as exposed to moisture intrusion and wetting-drying cycle. The formed bonding among soil particles was essential in affecting the mechanical responses and durability of stabilized soils. The desirable construction procedure and protective measure were encouraged to be established for safety applications of the stabilized soils. Additional researches were recommended to by-product lignin optimization/modification, dynamic behaviors of stabilized soils, and application in some special soils. The outcomes of this review are invaluable in facilitating application of biomass by-product lignin for stabilizing problematic soils in engineering constructions.

Economical contribution and reduction of environmental load by energy saving type air blower "TBS" series

Economical contribution and reduction of environmental load by energy saving type air blower "TBS" series

ВИКОРИСТАННЯ ПРОСТОРІВ ВІДПРАЦЬОВАНИХ КАР’ЄРІВ ДЛЯ ЗАБЕЗПЕЧЕННЯ ЕНЕРГЕТИЧНОЇ НЕЗАЛЕЖНОСТІ ГІРНИЧОДОБУВНИХ РЕГІОНІВ

Мета. Обґрунтування можливості забезпечення енергетичної незалежності гірничодобувних регіонів за рахунок використання просторів відпрацьованих кар’єрів для виробництва електроенергії та економічної ефективності доопрацювання кар’єрів із одночасним створенням в них маломодульних атомних електростанцій.Методика. Аналіз застосовуваних у світі енергетичних систем, заснованих на використанні енергії атома, дозволив обґрунтувати створення маломодульних атомних електростанцій у просторах відпрацьованих кар'єрах.Результати. Обґрунтовано вид енергетичного комплексу, що розміщується в кар'єрі, тип атомного реактора, його потужність і безпека. Розглянута можливість спорудження атомної станції з одночасним веденням гірничих робіт. Обґрунтовано розташування атомного реактора, при якому б досягалося мінімальне забруднення навколишнього середовища. Встановлено економічну та соціальну ефективність створення атомної станції в кар'єрі.Наукова новизна. Вперше показано можливість розміщення атомної електростанції у просторі відпрацьованого кар’єру із забезпеченням її ресурсами, створенням екологічно безпечної роботи та економічної і соціальної ефективності.Практична цінність. Запропонований варіант розміщення міні атомної електростанції у просторі кар’єру одночасно з його доопрацюванням має соціальну, економічну та екологічну ефективність. Соціальна ефективність складається у перепрофілюванні кар’єру та забезпечення зайнятості населення. Екологічна ефективність полягає у зменшенні екологічного навантаження та рекультивації об’єктів гірничорудного комплексу. Економічна ефективність складається із зменшення собівартості руди, що буде видобуватись при доопрацюванні кар’єру, та близько 1 млрд. доларів операційного прибутку від експорту електроенергії, яку може виробити проектована електростанція.

Product Carbon Footprint: Still a proper method to start improving the sustainability of food and beverage enterprises.

Given the complexity of food production, supply chains and distribution, this paper sustains that the mere assessment of the product carbon footprint might still be regarded as a first trial in the field of improving the sustainability of the food and drink industry. After having reviewed the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions associated with the agro-food system in industrialized countries, and summarized the main direct environmental impacts of the food industry, the pros and cons of the Life Cycle assessment (LCA) methodology were briefly examined together with the current standard methods used toassess the environmental impact of food and drink products. Once a cradle-to-grave product carbon footprint modelling had been developed, some mitigating actions might be tested with the final goal of reducing the GHG emissions associated with the most impacting product life cycle stages. As an example, such a procedure was applied to approximately halve the cradle-to-grave carbon footprint of two cereal-based products (i.e., dry pasta and malt beer). A cost/benefit analysis is required to relate the marginal increase in the product processing costs to each reduction in the product environmental load.

大学施設における環境負荷低減手法に関する研究 その24 大学キャンパスにおける低炭素化の取り組み経緯とエネルギー消費の変遷

大学施設における環境負荷低減手法に関する研究 その24 大学キャンパスにおける低炭素化の取り組み経緯とエネルギー消費の変遷

Estimation of water environmental capacity and pollution load reduction for urban lakeside of Lake Taihu, eastern China

Chinese urban lakeside with dense water networks are experiencing the increasingly intensified social–economic activities and serious surface water pollution. The estimation of water environmental capacity and pollution load reduction are crucial supports for restoring lakeshore aquatic ecosystems. In this study, a feasible environmental model and some model parameter identification methods were used to calculate the water environmental capacity and pollution load reduction for a typical urban lakeside, namely, Lake Taihu. The results indicated that the regional annual environmental capacities for TN, TP, CODMn, BOD5, and NH3-N were 99.25, 7.77, 37.36, 144.63, and 95.85 t under reduced 20% objective, respectively and −37.31, 9.28, 185.81, 27.14, and 148.80 t under Class III objective, correspondingly. The TN, TP, CODMn, BOD5, and NH3-N pollution loads are required to be reduced by 60%, 56%, 77%, 62%, and 51% for satisfying the reduced 20% water quality objective, respectively, and 115%, 47%, −16%, 93%, and 24% for achieving Class III objective, respectively. Among the rivers, the Liangxi, Maligang, and Lucun Rivers had large environmental capacities and pollution load reductions under both objectives, constituting more than half of the total regional values. The TN, TP, BOD5, and CODMn environmental capacity and pollution load reduction were significantly higher during the rainy period than during the other periods.

Optimal Thermal Insulation Thicknesses of External Walls Based on Economic and Ecological Heating Cost

The present study introduces the concept of ecological cost of heating modeled on the economic cost of heating. A method of determining these costs is also proposed. This method allows for an analytical description of the ecological as well as economic net present value of a thermal insulation investment. Consequently, it is possible to determine the optimal values for ecological reasons of the heat transfer coefficient of the building external wall and the thickness of thermal insulation. The present study uses life-cycle assessment (LCA) analysis to determine the environmental impact of thermal insulation materials used to insulate the external vertical wall and to determine the environmental impact of thermal energy production in the energy phase of the building’s life cycle. Various variants characteristic of Polish conditions were studied. Different types of construction materials of the wall, types of heat sources, thermal insulation materials and climate zones occurring in Poland were considered. For all analysed variants, the obtained thermal insulation thickness, optimum for ecological reasons, was much larger than the optimum for economic reasons. Even at the thickness of thermal insulation optimum for economic reasons, the investment was profitable for ecological reasons, i.e., a reduction in environmental load was obtained as a result of the thermal insulation investment. On the basis of the conducted study, it can be concluded that it is preferable to use thermal insulation thicknesses larger than required by current regulations and larger than optimum for economic reasons. The ecological benefits of thermal insulation investments are then significantly greater, with not much smaller economic benefits.

Sustainability of safe foods: Joint environmental, economic and microbial load reduction assessment of antimicrobial systems in U.S. beef processing.

Various antimicrobial interventions are applied sequentially in the beef processing industry to reduce microbial load on beef products by using intensive inputs (e.g., chemicals, energy), high strength wastewater, and potentially result in meat discoloration. This study serves as the first analysis to jointly evaluate environmental and economic assessment with its microbial load reduction of proposed antimicrobial systems in the U.S. beef processing industry to identify relatively sustainable systems that minimize environmental and economic impacts while providing microbial safe meat. Specifically, forty potential sequential antimicrobial systems were proposed and evaluated from three perspectives: microbial load reduction, environmental, and economic impacts, by meta-analysis, life cycle assessment, and operational cost analysis orderly. The results show that the antimicrobial systems applying steam pasteurization during the main intervention offer high microbial load reduction (>4.2 log CFU/cm2 reduction from a hypothetical initial contamination at 5.0 log CFU/cm2). Human health impact (31.0 to 65.6%) and ecosystem toxicity (3.6 to 12.5%), eutrophication (11.9 to 15.5%) and global warming (6.4 to 22.2%) are the main contributors to the overall environmental single score among the forty antimicrobial systems. Antimicrobial chemicals (up to 82.8%), wastewater treatment (up to 12.7%), and natural gas (up to 10.7%) are the three major drivers of operational cost for sanitizing 1000 kg hot standard carcass weight (HSCW). Devalued (discolored) meat due to contact with heat from steam pasteurization or hot water wash has a considerable increase in economic ($4.5/1000 HSCW) and environmental (especially at farm stage) impacts. Certain antimicrobial systems (e.g., water wash followed by steam pasteurization) were found to be more promising with satisfactory effectiveness, better environmental and cost performance under uncertainty (1000 Monte Carlo simulations). Results from this study can guide the U.S. beef processing industry to advance sustainability while protecting human health from foodborne illness.

Reduction of Environmental Load by Telecommuting in Oku-Nikko

Heat island phenomenon is occurring in the 23 wards of Tokyo and a vacant house is increasing in Oku-Nikko, so carbon dioxide emissions reduction and application of vacant house may happen by working in Oku-Nikko by means of telecommuting in summer. The Oku-Nikko area has a cool climate peculiar to the mountains in the area of Nikko city at an altitude of about 1270m to about 2500m, the average temperature in August is about 19 ° C, about 8 ° C lower than the center of the city, and It has gained a high reputation as a summer resort for a very long time. On the other hand, as the population declines due to young people moving out of the area and natural declines, the depopulation of the area has progressed and the tourism industry is the subject of the local industry, but the aging of facilities and manpower shortage due to depopulation etc. As the tourism industry declined, the number of buildings no longer used increased, the number of empty buildings increased in Oku-Nikko. Therefore, people using the telework usually work in urban areas work in Oku - Nikko in the summer, effectively utilizing the empty buildings, can also be expected to lead to the revitalization of the area. In this study, this study calculated the carbon dioxide emissions due to air conditioning in houses and offices during the two months of summer and the carbon dioxide emissions associated with commuting, and compared the total value with Oku-Nikko in the 23 wards of Tokyo. As a result, it comes out that carbon dioxide emissions of air conditioning and commuting may be able to become less about 70% than before.

Heat Pump Heating System Development of Educational Building based on Energy, Economical and Environmental Impacts

In this research the technical designing of energy efficient heating system with vertical-borehole heat pumps for institutional buildings was performed. The local government would like to change the old gas boiler-based heat producing system to up-to-date, environmental friendly equipment with the financial support of the European Union. The payback time was calculated and environmental calculations were achieved with carbon dioxide saving by various conditions that were also achieved during the research project. The results show that the heat pump system also provides a significant reduction of environmental load, in addition to significant energy savings. The amount of calculated savings justifies the environmental friendliness of heat pump systems.