Evaluation Of Environmental Impact Research Articles

Service Life Prediction and Environmental Impact Evaluation of Recycled Aggregate Concrete with Supplementary Cementitious Materials

Service Life Prediction and Environmental Impact Evaluation of Recycled Aggregate Concrete with Supplementary Cementitious Materials

Studi Pengaruh Kontaminasi Properti Rheology Water Based Mud di Lapangan Sunyu

Studi Pengaruh Kontaminasi Properti Rheology Water Based Mud di Lapangan Sunyu

Moving toward the low-carbon hydrogen economy: Experiences and key learnings from national case studies

• Hydrogen can contribute to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emission energy systems • The value chain must be assessed to identify the integration potential of hydrogen • Provides insights on challenges together with decision-support tools • Presents examples of methodologies and results in context of 5 European countries • Highlights common European drivers for the hydrogen economy The urgency to achieve net-zero carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) emissions by 2050, as first presented by the IPCC special report on 1.5°C Global Warming, has spurred renewed interest in hydrogen, to complement electrification, for widespread decarbonization of the economy. We present reflections on estimates of future hydrogen demand, optimization of infrastructure for hydrogen production, transport and storage, development of viable business cases, and environmental impact evaluations using life cycle assessments. We highlight challenges and opportunities that are common across studies of the business cases for hydrogen in Germany, the UK, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Norway. The use of hydrogen in the industrial sector is an important driver and could incentivise large-scale hydrogen value chains. In the long-term hydrogen becomes important also for the transport sector. Hydrogen production from natural gas with capture and permanent storage of the produced CO 2 (CCS) enables large-scale hydrogen production in the intermediate future and is complementary to hydrogen from renewable power. Furthermore, timely establishment of hydrogen and CO 2 infrastructures serves as an anchor to support the deployment of carbon dioxide removal technologies, such as direct air carbon capture and storage (DACCS) and biohydrogen production with CCS. Significant public support is needed to ensure coordinated planning, governance, and the establishment of supportive regulatory frameworks which foster the growth of hydrogen markets.

Changes in terms of risks/benefits of shifting diets towards healthier and more sustainable dietary models.

Food production and therefore human diet are identified as important sources of environmental impact. Unhealthy and unsustainable diets with high intake of meat and low intake of plant-based products are predominant worldwide. On the other hand, a balance between health and sustainability is necessary, since diets that are environmentally sustainable could lack essential macro- and micronutrients and result in nutrient deficiencies, non-communicable diseases and malnutrition. The aim of this project was to investigate the nutritional adequacy and environmental impact of adults' diet by comparing current dietary habits and new alternative dietary scenarios. First, a systematic review was conducted following PRISMA guidelines to assess the environmental impact of current diets and sustainable dietary scenarios such as vegan, vegetarian, pescatarian, omnivorous and optimised dietary patterns worldwide. In the second part of the project, an optimisation study was conducted, based on a multi-objective optimisation approach, with the purpose of creating the optimal diet based on nutritional and environmental constraints for the adult Italian population. The dietary scenarios of the optimised models were developed in accordance with the Italian food-based dietary guidelines. Food consumption data was extracted from the INHES study and used as baseline diet. A clear evaluation of the current environmental impact because of diet and potential sustainable dietary scenarios globally is challenging. Finally, national food-based guidelines should be adjusted by suggesting healthy and sustainable dietary recommendations in line with traditional eating habits and local food availability in order the desirable dietary shifts towards sustainability to be feasible.

Performance evaluation of desulfurization and environmental impact of using waste from mines as adsorbent

This study aims to reduce the environmental impact of impurity adsorption systems on hydrogen production. Biomass is a carbon-neutral hydrogen fuel with a low environmental impact. However, during the production of biomass-derived hydrogen (biohydrogen), the hydrogen sulfide contained in the gasified biomass reduces the performance of fuel cells when hydrogen is used. Generally, hydrogen sulfide (H 2 S) is removed via impurity adsorption. However, common adsorbents such as metal oxides have a significant environmental impact. Therefore, adsorbents with lower environmental impacts are required. Thus, to improve metal depletion from the circular economy perspective, this study proposes using neutralized sediment, a waste product from the mining wastewater treatment, as an H 2 S adsorbent. In this study, we discuss the environmental impact of H 2 S adsorption systems that use neutralized sediments as adsorbents. Although the use of waste materials has a small environmental impact, it is necessary to consider the environmental impact of the inputs and outputs related to waste material generation based on life cycle assessment (LCA). Because fossil fuel-generated electricity and chemical neutralizers are input in mine wastewater treatment, the use of neutralized sediment may have a large environmental impact than the use of metal oxides from the viewpoint of LCA. Therefore, we quantitatively evaluated the environmental impact of neutralized sediment using LCA and investigated whether the environmental impact of using neutralized sediment is less than that of using metal oxides. In addition, it is not appropriate to include the production stage in the system boundary to meet the LCA standards because mineral water treatment, which is the production stage of neutralized sediment, is conducted whether neutralized sediment is utilized or not as an H 2 S adsorbent. Therefore, an LCA that does not include the production stage was also conducted to indicate the environmental benefit of waste utilization according to the actual situation. The amount of neutralized sediment used, which is calculated by the sulfur capture capacity, is necessary for the LCA calculation. However, the sulfur capture capacity of neutralized sediment has never been investigated. Hence, dynamic adsorption tests were conducted during gasification at low (40–120 °C) and high (200–300 °C) temperatures to investigate the sulfur capture capacity of the neutralized sediment in each temperature range. The results showed that the sulfur capture capacity of the neutralized precipitates was 2.28 (at 40 °C) and 5.73 (at 300 °C) g S/100 g sorbent. The results of the LCA, with and without including the neutralized sediment production process, based on the sulfur capture capacity, demonstrated that the use of neutralized sediment as an adsorbent improved the global warming potential (GWP) by 75.1% and 98.9%, respectively, compared with the use of metal oxides. In other words, this study quantitatively indicated that the use of neutralized sediment as H 2 S adsorbents has a smaller environmental impact than existing adsorbents and shows the importance of considering the actual situation in LCA for waste utilization.

Micro-level indicators for evaluation of environmental impact of agricultural technology

Micro-level indicators for evaluation of environmental impact of agricultural technology

A comparative life cycle assessment (LCA) analysis of innovative methods employing cutting-edge technology to improve sludge reduction directly in wastewater handling units

Sludge reduction technologies can be used as an alternative plan to dispose of excess sludge in wastewater treatment plants, but the sustainability of these strategies is a challenging task. In this study, the potential environmental implications of innovative technologies based on lab-scale results published in the literature were assessed from the life cycle assessment (LCA) view point. Accordingly, three different scenarios using various sludge reduction mechanisms were selected and analyzed. The scenarios include (1) an integrated oxic-setting-anaerobic and ultrasound process; (2) a sequencing batch reactor (SBR) with an anaerobic side-stream reactor to its return activated sludge line; and (3) the anaerobic-anoxic-oxic system in conjunction with an ozone reactor. LCA was conducted through the CML-IA (baseline 2000) method. A sensitivity analysis was also done in order to determine how changes in the inputs are affecting the overall sustainability of the system. The environmental impact evaluation of three scenarios indicated that the integrated SBR with an anaerobic side-stream reactor was the most efficient and sustainable alternative in environmental terms. Although the upgraded SBR system was not the best alternative in terms of sludge reduction (65 % versus 78 % for Scenario 1 and 70 % for Scenario 3), it showed the highest overall performance and also demonstrated the lowest environmental impact compared to other scenarios. Because the scenarios studied were cutting-edge and provided novel sludge reduction strategies based on lab-scale results published in the literature, a comprehensive economic analysis and scale-up considerations are recommended to effectively assist decision-makers in guiding the development of emerging technologies.

Environmental impact evaluation of landfill mining of legacy waste with on-site sorting using life cycle assessment.

The present research is aimed at assessing the environmental impacts of landfill mining of soil-like material with on-site sorting for land application using life cycle assessment. The scenario is compared with no-landfill mining (base scenario) and future scenario (including material recycling and incineration). Soil-like material is processed using windrow composting. The impact assessment was performed using the EASETECH™ software tool. ReCipE 2016 midpoint world impact method with eight impact categories was used for assessing the environmental profiles. The functional unit of the assessment was 1 t of recovered waste in India. Overall, the results showed that excavation of landfilled waste with on-site recovery of soil and land application of soil resulted in higher environmental benefits compared to no mining condition in global warming potential (GWP), freshwater eutrophication (FEW), human toxicity (HT), and fossil depletion (FD), while higher impacts were observed in terrestrial acidification (TA), terrestrial ecotoxicity (TE), marine eutrophication (ME), and photochemical oxidation (PCO). After composting, land application of recovered soil contributed to environmental offsets in GWP, HT, and FEW while contributing to TE emissions. Emissions associated with excavation and on-site sorting contributed 55.1% to freshwater toxicity, 25.5% to human toxicity, 16.2% to climate change, and 10.8% to terrestrial acidification. The choice of energy, transportation, and fuel for waste activities affected the performance of alternative scenarios in GWP. Application of recovered metals in the manufacturing process, incineration of plastic, and textile components improved the environmental performance. The outcomes of this research will equip regulatory bodies in the development of guidelines and frameworks on material and energy recovery from the waste components mined from legacy waste.

THE IMPACT OF EXPERIMENTAL PILOT FOR TRITIUM AND DEUTERIUM SEPARATION ACTIVITY ON TRITIUM LEVEL IN THE ATMOSPHERIC WATER VAPOR OF ICSI TRITIUM LABORATORY

Results obtained from the monitoring of the ambient air of the ICSI Ramnicu Valcea Tritium Laboratory and the monitoring of the atmosphere around the Experimental Pilot Plant for Tritium and Deuterium Separation are used in the environmental impact evaluation of the experiments in the period 2020-2022. Even though the experiments carried out involved different tritium activity concentrations, there were no increases in the activity of tritium concentration in the analyzed samples, with numerous results of atmospheric samples being below the detection limit.

Environmental impact evaluation of a proposed steel and cement complex in the waste management scenario

AbstractEnvironmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is an important tool that identifies impact parameters, qualitatively and quantitatively predicts and evaluates the anticipated adverse and beneficial impacts. It then suggests mitigation measures and if possible alternative action. Therefore, EIA becomes mandatory for almost every planning and development processes. This paper makes analysis of the large‐scale polluting industrial processes of steel, power, and cement. It uses EIA study and consequent Environmental Management Plan (EMP) that includes elaborate mitigation measures and peripheral development. Ideally, the complete waste utilization with optimum use of resources and energy can be implemented by the industry and the same is very often mandated by regulatory authorities. The quantitative evaluation of impact by using modified Leopold matrix is separately carried out to compute total impact score (TIS) in each case. Obviously the TIS value in case of EMP with incorporation of social issues and waste utilization comes out to be a net positive value of 2218.3 offsetting the case without these issues, with a resultant high negative value of 5983.5. Sustainability aspect of the project is considered with economic, environmental and social aspects along with waste management aspects, in order to justify the viability of the project.

Converting industrial waste into a value-added cement material through ambient pressure carbonation

Converting industrial wastes into value-added building products in an environmental management strategy is a challenging yet vital component of the industrial process. Steel slag (SS), an industrial waste by-product from the steel-making process, is typically disposed of in landfill which consumes land resources and pollutes the environment. This paper explores the possibility of a closed-loop system to convert steel slag into a cement material through carbonation activation, thereby significantly reducing the amount of steel slag waste sent to landfills across Canada. The production of this cementing material can occur next to the steel mill, utilizing steel slag and carbon dioxide collected on-site to fabricate carbon-negative products. To save energy and allow production to be feasible on an industrial scale, ambient pressure (AP) carbonation is developed to reduce carbon emissions while improving their performance. High pressure (HP) carbonation curing and normal hydration (NH) references were also implemented at the same time to justify the application of AP carbonation in reducing CO2 emission. The results of this study found AP carbonation-activated SS compacts have comparable CO2 uptake (about 7.5 tons CO2/100 tons slag) and mechanically compressive strength values as those subjected to HP carbonation, suggesting that AP could be used to replace HP in carbonation curing to ensure a lower energy input. Additionally, AP seemed to possess as effective carbonation as HP. The studies investigated by multiple techniques including X-ray diffractometer (XRD), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), Raman spectroscopic analysis, and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) aim to identify the microstructure development of carbonated SS paste to assess carbonation results. Developed with life cycle assessment (LCA), environmental impact evaluation shows that AP presents a smaller global warming potential (GWP) value than HP. The comparable CO2 sequestration, satisfactory engineering properties, enhanced microstructure and lesser environmental impact in AP carbonation confirm the feasibility of replacing high pressure with extremely low pressure to cure concrete products. The use of AP carbonation for cement material created using steel slag reduces carbon emissions, energy usage, and natural resource consumption.

Life Cycle Assessment for Rough Machining of Inconel 718 Comparing Ceramic to Cemented Carbide End Mills

Abstract Nickel-based alloys such as Inconel 718 belong to the group of heat-resistant super alloys. Combined with good mechanical properties over a wide range of temperatures, nickel alloys are used extensively in the aero engine sections exposed to elevated temperatures. Besides turbine blades and disks, integrally designed compressor rotors (Blisks) in the high-pressure compressor are increasingly made of Ni alloys. This is the result of an efficiency-driven increase in temperature levels in the rear compressor stages. The machining of these hard-to-machine materials is characterized by low productivity and high tool wear. Compared to the machining with conventional cemented carbide end mills, innovative SiAlON ceramics offer a significant potential to increase the performance of these machining processes while saving cooling-lubricants. Besides an increase in productivity, the evaluation of the overall environmental impact of specific manufacturing processes is gaining importance in the context of more sustainable product life cycles. This paper focuses on the comparison of different milling strategies in the production of high-pressure compressor rotors made from Inconel 718 in a cradle-to-gate assessment based on DIN EN ISO 14040/44. Thus, the ecological impact of both the state-of-the-art and the novel SiAlON roughing strategy are evaluated considering the consumption of energy, water and compressed air as well as the tool wear. The life cycle impact analysis (LCIA) will be performed as a midpoint analysis taking multiple indicators into account such as the global warming potential (GWP).

Life Cycle Assessment for Environmental Impact Reduction and Evaluation of the Energy Indices in Lettuce Production

Since the supply of basic needs, especially food, is among the strategic priorities of each country and conventional food production methods no longer suffice, food production methods are now transforming into industrial approaches. Industrialization, however, requires higher energy usage. Greater energy demand brings about the issue of energy sustainability. In particular, the depletion of fossil fuels results in serious challenges in food production processes. On the other hand, the utilization of energy carriers is accompanied by environmental contamination. In this regard, evaluating energy consumption and environmental pollution in the production systems can be a proper approach to finding the energy consumption and pollution centers for presenting applicable solutions to decrease pollution. In this study, energy indices of ER, EP, SE, and NEG were assessed to evaluate the energy consumption of lettuce production. The results showed values of 0.4, 17.28 kg/MJ, 0.06 MJ/kg, and 29,922 MG/ha for ER, EP, SE, and NEG, respectively. Among the consumption inputs, diesel fuel and nitrogen fertilizer had the highest consumption rate. Pollutants were also explored by the life cycle assessment method. Accordingly, chemicals and agricultural machinery led to the highest contaminating emissions. To reduce environmental contaminants, lowering the application of chemical pesticides, using biological approaches to combat pests, determining the proper amount of chemical fertilizers, using animal fertilizers, and using the proper agricultural machines should be considered.

Exergoeconomic and environmental impact evaluation of wind energy assisted hybrid solar dryer and conventional solar dryer

Exergoeconomic analysis is one of the basic methods that clearly reveal the energy cost analysis of a system. The analysis of environmental impact, on the other hand, is the based factor that detects energy payback time and CO2 reduction according to the amount of energy contained in a system. In this study, a wind energy assisted hybrid solar dryer (WASD) was developed, tested in both simple conventional solar dryer (CSD) and WASD modes, and exergoeconomic and environmental impact assessments were examined for these two modes. While the required electrical energy for the WASD mode was obtained from the wind energy, on the other hand, the necessary electrical energy for the CSD mode was required from the grid electricity. According to the exergoeconomic analysis results, it was detected that the fan was the basic component that needed improvement in both situations. With respect to the environmental impact analysis, the energy payback periods for WASD and CSD modes were determined as 1.36 and 0.62 years, respectively. Moreover, the data obtained revealed that the WASD mode was approximately 50% more advantageous in terms of energy and drying efficiency compared to the CSD mode.

Supply Chain as a Complex System: Environmental Impact Evaluation and Perception

Abstract Customers are aware of the complexity of supply chains and link this to a high environmental burden. However, if not coupled with quantitative results, this may be overestimated. The present paper proposes a general method used in the specific case of deep environmental evaluation of a swimming goggles distribution. The results are compared to the consumers’ perceptions, collected and analyzed from questionnaires, and the remaining product lifecycle stages, assessed through the life cycle assessment (LCA). The design and prototyping phases take place in Italy, the goods are manufactured in Asia, and further commercialized worldwide. The environmental analysis enabled the identification of the most impacting lifecycle phases. Results highlight that for small products, with a simple use phase like the goggles, the distribution phase retains a small percentage of the overall environmental impact; thus, it is reasonable to simplify the modeling of the supply chain by selecting a limited number of significant scenarios. This work proves how important is to quantify and rationalize the environmental impacts of a complex system. The end of life and transport phases are perceived as high impacting, but the life cycle assessment analysis reveals that the materials and manufacturing phases retain the highest impacts and are the first that should be improved. Consequently, proper dissemination, cooperation, and communication strategies should be carried out by the goggles brand toward suppliers and stakeholders; the company is now studying how to replace virgin materials with recycled content to lower the environmental impact without hampering the product’s performance.

Dynamic evaluation of environmental impact for three-way catalytic converter with temporal variation life cycle method

Dynamic evaluation of environmental impact for three-way catalytic converter with temporal variation life cycle method

Evaluation of Functional, Microstructural, Environmental Impact, and Economic Performance of Concrete Utilizing Ferrochrome Ash and Slag

Evaluation of Functional, Microstructural, Environmental Impact, and Economic Performance of Concrete Utilizing Ferrochrome Ash and Slag

Sustainability assessment of the whole biomass-to-energy chain of a combined heat and power plant based on biomass gasification: biomass supply chain management and life cycle assessment.

Energy generation from waste renewable sources represent an efficient way to provide green power with the highest environmental benefits, tackling problems related to the high costs for their disposal through the conversion of these wastes in biofuels. However, several challenges hinder their intensified use, as the huge variability in the amount and composition of these sources forces authors to enlarge their studies on the entire biomass-to-energy chain sustainability where the power technology can be installed with the highest profits. In present work, the technical, environmental and economic impact of the entire biomass-to-energy supply chain is assessed with reference to a real commercially available Combined Heat and Power (CHP) system, the CMD ECO20X based on biomass gasification, installed as operational demonstration in the Municipality of Laurino in the National Park of Cilento, Vallo di Diano, and Alburni (PNCVD) in Southern part of Italy. Several calculation tools previously developed by authors for the analysis of the performance of the various components of the ECO20X system are here employed to define the mass and energy fluxes that characterize its operations in a local supply chain where forest management residues (oak and beech trees) and olive pomace from oil mills in the area are exploited. The analysis aims to quantify the energy absorption necessary for the pretreatment operations of the organic residue (shredding, briquetting, drying) which are essential for gasification, and how much they affect the production deriving from the biomass cogeneration process itself. Then, measurements in terms of pollutants related to the energy production at the municipality and of the air quality in the area, help in the evaluation of the plant environmental impact from a global perspective, by virtue of data obtained from an LCA analysis conducted considering one year functioning of the CHP plant.

Evaluation of Economic Benefits and Ecological Environment Impact of Export Trade in Anhui Free Trade Zone

Nowadays, the scale of international trade is expanding at a great pace, leading to the development of the economy of different countries. Global industrialization and urbanization are developing with each passing day, and this fast economic expansion is putting a tremendous impact on the environment. Like the other countries, the scale of Chinese export trade is also increasing with time, resulting in the stable economy of our country. With the improvement of living standards, people are continuously demanding high environmental facilities. Further, the impact of trade (enterprises, companies, industries, etc.) on the ecological environment has become a worldwide problem because economic progress brought forth by trade expansion may directly affect the environment by causing pollution to rise or the degradation of natural resources. This indeed is a serious issue; therefore, various countries have started focusing on the impact of export trade on the ecological environment. In recent years, the issue of economic benefits and the environmental impact of export trade has become a hot topic of research. Therefore, this study focuses on the relationship between trade, economy, and environmental quality in China. For the accomplishment of our research study, we selected Anhui free trade zone (FTZ) as an example to analyze the interaction between the economic benefits of Anhui export trade and the local environment. It is among the top trading provinces in China having a faster economic development. In order to accurately study the economic benefits and environmental impact of export trade in the Anhui FTZ, this paper selects industrial waste gas, wastewater, and solid waste to establish an export trade environmental impact indicating system. After comparative analysis, three factors that include industrial soot (dust) emissions for export trade, chemical oxygen demand for trade, and general industrial solid waste dumping and discards are selected to evaluate the impact on the environment of the free trade zone. Based on this, the export trade environment vector autoregressive (VAR) model is established, and the variance decomposition method is used to analyze the dynamic impact of various factors on the environmental impact index. Further, we established an economic benefit VAR model based on the export economic benefit index (EI), export value (EV), and export product concentration (EPC) index and judged the economic benefit of the Anhui free trade zone based on the contribution rate of the obtained three factors. The experimental results show that the export volume and product concentration directly affect the economic benefits of the region, and at the same time, the expansion of export trade promotes the growth of economic benefits.

Evaluation of Environmental Impact of Palm-Fiber Based Geotextile Using a Life Cycle Method

Currently, the geotextile industry is dominated by petroleum-based products, and the market share of bio-based geotextiles is still very low. With climatic and more generally environmental issues, combined with the scarcity of petroleum resources, the use of bio-based products appears to be an avenue of choice to explore. Through this study, we intend to raise the environmental benefits of a natural geotextile woven from fibers extracted from the leaves of the dwarf palm plant, an abundant renewable resource in Morocco and Mediterranean basin. We used the life cycle assessment analysis from cradle to factory gate following the requirements of ISO 14040 and ISO 14044 standards. Our main objective is to provide an environmental profile for this natural geotextile to encourage its use in soil protection and to stimulate therefore the local economy. The LCA analysis results showed that the transportation phase is the main contributor to almost every environmental impact category. We also noticed that no environmental impact was identified for the raw material supply phase which is characterized by a traditional harvest of raw palm leaves from the palm plant that grows spontaneously in eco-friendly environment. A comparison with two examples of petroleum-based geotextiles available in the market shows that palm-fiber-based geotextile presented the lower impacts in all the categories, except for eutrophication and ozone layer depletion potentials, its carbon footprint is relatively low and can save an average of 0.84 Kg CO2 eq. per surface unit (1 m2), nevertheless, its water consumption exceeds that recorded for synthetic geotextiles. Finally, palm-fiber geotextile can compete with the synthetic ones used in soil erosion, it is designed from renewable resource, naturally biodegradable, requires little energy for its production, and contribute to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.