Assessing the environmental sustainability of the billion trees afforestation project through life cycle assessment.

Vegetation cover affects the response of greenhouse gas emissions to microplastics in a coastal wetland.

Closing the loop in agriculture: life cycle assessment from manure to hydrogen and biofertilizer.

Industrial solid waste based sulfoaluminate materials for pollution cutoff wall: Biochar-driven hydration acceleration, microstructural densification, and life-cycle environmental benefits.

Low-carbon sustainable bio-electrochemical system for upgrading oilfield wastewater treatment: Comparative life cycle assessment.

Breaking redox compromise in real scale up wastewater with Cr(VI) and antibiotic: Interfacial charge regulation mechanism.

New irrigation management in paddy fields reduces methane emissions and increases water use efficiency.

Eco-efficient silver-doped bismuth vanadate photocatalysts for visible-light wastewater treatment: Performance and life cycle insights.

Plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria enhance the recovery of submerged macrophytes and increase the absorption of greenhouse gases.

Numerous studies have investigated the environmental impacts of dairy cattle farming systems using the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology. However, considering additional related factors can provide a broader perspective and more comprehensive contextualisation of the results. Net food production is a crucial aspect that adds valuable insights to the discussion on sustainable farming practices. Moreover, few studies have focused on mountain dairy farming systems, which differ significantly in structure and management from large-scale dairy operations in the lowlands. This study aims to provide a comprehensive comparison between conventionally and organically managed mountain dairy farms, specifically focusing on dual-purpose Simmental cattle. Six impact categories, Global Warming Potential (GWP100), Marine Eutrophication Potential (ME), Terrestrial Acidification Potential (TA), Land Use (LU), and Water Use (WU), were quantified via the LCA approach and attributed to one kilogram of Energy Corrected Milk (ECM) and one m2 of on-farm agricultural area. To determine the individual farm’s efficiency to provide human edible food, two additional indicators were calculated: milk yield deriving from roughage and net protein provision, based on the amount of human edible protein in the animal diet vs. the amount of human edible protein inside the milk. Further, carbon sequestration by permanent grassland was calculated for each farm. Results showed lower impacts of the organically managed farms (ORG group) for the categories ME (0.0009 vs. 0.0017 kg N eq) and WU (0.02 vs. 0.08 m³ kg ECM−1), while no significant differences could be found for GWP100 and TA, and the conventional farms (CON group) were more efficient in LU (0.97 vs. 1.54 m2a crop eq). In the case of net food production, the CON group showed an overall higher efficiency (0.023 vs. −0.016 NP kg ECM−1), mainly due to maize silage input. No significant difference was found in the C sequestration of permanent grassland between the two groups. This study analysed diverse mountain dairy farms using a single cattle breed, focusing on management, environmental impact, food efficiency, and carbon sequestration. Enhancing sustainability in these systems requires considering not only emissions but also their role in converting non-edible feed into food, maintaining low local environmental impact, preserving grasslands, and supporting ecosystem services.

Global warming has become a worldwide problem in recent years, and authorities are taking action to overcome this problem. Refrigerants with high global warming potential (GWP) are continuously prohibited, and as a result, ultra-low GWP refrigerants stand out in the heating, cooling, refrigeration, and air conditioning (HVAC-R) industry. This paper presents a theoretical analysis of air-to-air heat pump cycles using 2024 F-Gas regulation-compliant ultra-low GWP refrigerants, including hydrocarbons and transcritical CO2, with three different configurations. Annual energy consumption and total equivalent warming impact (TEWI) values were calculated for three provinces in Türkiye with different climates using bin-hour data. The results were compared in both cooling and heating modes with R410A and R32 cycles as well. Up to 11.7% and 14.5% improvement in annual energy consumption was achieved using parallel compression and booster cycle, respectively. Cycles with booster configuration using R290 and R600a refrigerants achieved the best performance.

This study presents a comparative analysis of the performance of R-410A, a widely used refrigerant in residential split-type air conditioning systems, and R-32, a low-GWP alternative. Experimental findings indicate that R-32 provides approximately 10–15% higher energy efficiency and has a global warming potential (GWP) three times lower than that of R-410A. These advantages contribute to both reducing direct emissions and mitigating indirect CO₂ emissions through lower electricity consumption. However, as R-32 is classified as an A2L refrigerant (mildly flammable), compliance with international safety standards such as EN 378 and ISO 5149 is required. From a policy perspective, the findings align with Türkiye's climate commitments, including the Paris Agreement, the Kigali Amendment, and the Climate Law enacted in 2025, which formalised the national target of net-zero emissions by 2053. The adoption of R-32 is therefore a strategic measure for reducing greenhouse gas emissions in line with the country's Emissions Trading System (ETS) and compliance with the EU Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM). Overall, the results demonstrate that R-32 can serve as a transitional refrigerant in Türkiye's air-conditioning sector, providing technical, environmental, and economic benefits. Additionally, its adoption can enhance energy security, strengthen industrial competitiveness, and support national climate change goals. Further research should focus on long-term performance under various climatic conditions, life cycle climate performance (LCCP), and pathways toward natural refrigerants, such as R-290 and CO₂.

Abstract High-temperature heat pumps (HTHPs) are emerging as pivotal technologies for decarbonizing industrial heat supply by upgrading low-grade waste heat to meet diverse thermal demands. This review summarizes and analyzes the current state, applications and future trends of HTHPs from a carbon–neutral perspective. Core technological aspects—including cycle configurations, refrigerants, compressors, and integration strategies—are systematically analyzed. Thermodynamic comparisons reveal that cascade and coupled cycles can achieve temperature lifts above 100 °C under optimized conditions. The transition from high global warming potential (GWP) hydrofluorocarbons toward low-GWP hydrofluoroolefins, hydrochlorofluoroolefins, and natural refrigerants is accelerating. Large-capacity screw and centrifugal compressors are identified as key enablers for industrial-scale deployment. Typical industrial deployments of HTHPs across various fields are introduced, mainly structured around their application potential, integration characteristics, and implementation methods within energy-intensive sectors (e.g., paper manufacturing, textile dyeing). Future development will focus on high-power systems, advanced working fluid design, and digital control integration with renewable power and thermal storage. Collectively, HTHPs constitute an essential electrification pathway for achieving deep industrial decarbonization and carbon–neutral energy systems.

ABSTRACT School buildings in Saudi Arabia have high cooling demands, which contribute significantly to the nation’s overall energy consumption. This underlines the need for holistic optimization of building system design, including material selection, energy sources, and usage strategies to achieve energy-efficient educational infrastructure. This study addresses this challenge by applying a Building Information Modeling – Life Cycle Assessment (BIM-LCA) framework integrated with multi-criteria scenarios to evaluate the environmental impact of school buildings in Madinah, with a focus on carbon emissions reduction. Four sensitivity analyses were conducted within a cradle-to-grave system boundary using the TRACI 2.2 life cycle impact assessment method. Results showed that combining 50% slag as a cement substitute with optimized heating, ventilation, and air conditioning, lighting, and solar photovoltaic systems reduced the total global warming potential (GWP) from 14.37 million kg CO2 to 3.14 million kg CO2, representing an absolute reduction of 11.23 million kg CO2. These findings demonstrate the potential of the BIM-LCA framework and provide insights into substantial GWP reduction for school building design in hot climatic environments such as Madinah, Saudi Arabia.

ABSTRACT The following study uses Life Cycle Assessment as a tool to determine the impacts generated by the treatment of sludge from municipal wastewater treatment plants (EWC 190805). In this paper, four scenarios of technologies used for sludge disposal are presented: scenario A considers dewatered and undigested sludge sent to landfill; in scenario B the sludge undergoes a stabilization process for use on land; scenario C considers incineration of the dried sludge; and in scenario D the sludge undergoes the same treatment as in scenario B but for final use as compost. The system boundaries include transport to the various disposal centers, using functional units equal to one ton of dried sludge. House made software was used to calculate the impacts, using input data from an existing plant located in central Italy. The environmental categories analyzed were global warming potential, acidification potential and eutrophication potential. The results per functional unit indicate that land application has the lowest GWP impact, while incineration without recovery produces the highest. The analysis was then extended to the national level with data from the ISPRA database. Research using LCA can be useful for decision-makers and stakeholders on strategies to improve environmental performance on the topic.

This study investigates the interlayer properties and sustainability of 3D-printed ultra-high-performance concrete (UHPC) modified with antimony tailings (ATs). The different AT ratios considered were 2.7, 5.4, 8.1, 10.8, and 13.5 wt% additions. The mechanical experiments show the optimal concentration resulting in compressive and flexural strength of 11.2% and 17.2% enhancement at 28 days, respectively. SEM analysis revealed that AT enhances the interlayer strength of 3D-printed UHPC and influences the anisotropic behavior of the matrix around steel fibers. X-CT demonstrated that increasing the AT from the compared group to 13.5% reduced the pore volume from 2.02% to 0.30%. Furthermore, an environmental impact assessment of the 10.8 wt% AT exhibited a 32.5% reduction in key indicators including abiotic depletion (ADP), acidification potential (AP), global warming potential (GWP), and ozone depletion potential (ODP). Consequently, UHPC incorporating AT offers superior environmental sustainability in the practical construction of 3D-printed concrete. This research provides practical guidance in optimizing 3D-printed UHPC engineering, further facilitating the integrated design and manufacturing of multi-layer structures.

This study presents a comprehensive economic and environmental evaluation of immobilized lipases produced on eggshell membrane-based carriers from eggshell waste, based on laboratory-scale experiments. By integrating economic analysis (EA) and life cycle analysis (LCA), the key factors affecting the economic viability and environmental impact of the process were identified, supporting sustainable and circular biorefinery concepts. The EA estimated the total process cost at EUR 25.63 for 15 g of product, while the effective net cost was negative (EUR −14.81) due to the valorization of anhydrous calcium chloride as a valuable by-product. The effective net cost reduction from by-product valorization of the immobilized lipase was estimated at 0.99 EUR/g as the minimum selling price (MSP). When expressed per unit of enzymatic activity, the immobilized lipase on the eggshell waste membrane-based carrier shows a substantially lower cost (EUR/U) compared with representative commercial immobilized lipases, demonstrating clear catalytic cost-efficiency advantages. The cradle-to-gate life cycle assessment, conducted using ReCiPe 2016 quantification methods, highlighted electricity consumption during drying as the primary environmental hotspot, accounting for up to 57% of the global warming potential. Sensitivity and uncertainty analyses showed that energy consumption strongly influences the impact in terms of climate change and fossil resource depletion, while the impact of chemical use was minimal. These results show that energy-efficient process optimization, especially in the drying phase, is crucial for further improving environmental and economic performance. These results indicate that optimizing energy efficiency, especially during the drying phase, is crucial for further improving the production process of immobilized lipases on eggshell membrane-based carriers, both environmentally and economically.

The construction sector accounts for 39% of GHG emissions, being the main contributor to embodied carbon emissions of building materials, and operational energy consumption for indoor thermal comfort. Cereal straw, an agricultural by-product, is emerging as a low-carbon alternative due to its thermal performance and negative embodied carbon. This paper aims to review recent advances of cereal straw as a building material for decarbonization of construction, analyzing its thermal properties, embodied carbon, and large-scale applications. A literature review focused on European-certified straw-based materials, grouped into four categories: straw bales, blown-in insulation, modular systems, and bio-composites. Twelve Product Environmental Declarations (EPDs) and technical specifications were examined to evaluate manufacturing processes, material properties, and Global Warming Potential (GWP) for cradle-to-gate stages (A1–A3), as well as their use in large-scale projects over the past five years. Thermal conductivity ranged from 0.043 to 0.068 W/m·K, while embodied carbon varied between –101.2 and –146.5 kg CO2 eq/m3. Straw bales remain prevalent in small-scale housing, blown-in insulation supports retrofitting, and modular systems offer the most balanced performance, enabling high-rise or extensive built surfaces. The study concludes that straw products have the potential to decarbonize opaque elements of the envelope, reducing operational and embodied energy of buildings.

Indonesia has set a target to achieve Net Zero Emissions (NZE) by 2060 and a 52% renewable energy share by 2030. Geothermal energy, with 29.5 GW potential, is critical, yet environmental performance of technologies remains poorly characterized, hindering sustainable decisions. This systematic review analyzes life cycle assessment (LCA) studies on binary, flash, and dry steam geothermal technologies. Scopus and Google Scholar searches using keywords "geothermal power plant" and "life cycle assessment" yielded 30 studies (2013–2025). Environmental burdens vary by technology, geology, design, and operations. Binary systems face high impacts from drilling, steel construction, and working-fluid leakage (up to 64% of global warming potential). Flash systems show major CO? and H?S emissions, reducible by 78% via abatement or hybrid flash-binary setups. Dry steam plants are dominated by non-condensable gas (NCG) emissions unless hybridized with Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS) or Combined Heat and Power (CHP), shifting hotspots to construction. Findings offer Indonesia actionable insights: select cleaner configurations, optimize drilling, deploy emission controls, and prioritize low-global-warming-potential fluids. This synthesis of site-specific LCAs creates a framework identifying hotspots and pathways, supporting evidence-based policies for sustainable geothermal expansion in Indonesia's energy transition.

Southeast Asia is battered by intensifying climate hazards, yet the region continues to feed hundreds of millions through its vast rice bowls. Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA) is increasingly regarded as the most viable route to sustain production, slash greenhouse-gas emissions, and strengthen farmer resilience in the face of worsening shocks. This systematic review consolidates the strongest field-based evidence currently available across the region. Methane emissions are reduced by approximately 35 % and global warming potential by 29 % when Alternate Wetting and Drying (AWD) is correctly applied, while irrigation water use drops substantially and rice yields remain stable or increase modestly. Greenhouse-gas fluxes are suppressed by roughly 20 % through biochar incorporation, and crop productivity is raised between 10 % and 28 %, with the most pronounced benefits observed on the acidic, low-fertility soils that dominate mainland and insular Southeast Asia. In the Lower Mekong Basin, the System of Rice Intensification (SRI) has been shown to deliver average yield gains of 52 % alongside 70 % higher net economic returns. Despite these robust outcomes, widespread uptake is still constrained by multiple barriers. Training is often inadequate, initial investment costs are perceived as prohibitive, and access to land, credit, extension services, and timely information is distributed unequall-particularly disadvantaging women farmers. Large evidence gaps persist for non-rice agroecosystems and for standardised, comparable indicators of resilience. The review therefore concludes with a clearly sequenced research and policy agenda aimed at shifting CSA from scattered demonstration plots to landscape-scale transformation across Southeast Asia’s diverse farming systems.