Life Cycle Environmental Impact Assessment Research Articles

Life-cycle environmental impact assessment and plastic pollution prevention measures of wet wipes

Wet wipes have become one of the daily necessities for consumers. The spunlace non-woven fabric, whose main raw materials are petroleum-based fibers (mainly polyester fibers) and bio-based fibers (mainly viscose fibers), is the predominant component of wet wipes. The use of wet wipes triggers the increasing plastic consumption and environmental pollution. In the current study, the materials composition of China's wet wipes and final disposal methods were performed. The basic data of materials of wet wipes was obtained through field research. The study also evaluated and compared the life cycle environmental impacts of bio-based and petroleum-based wet wipes. Results showed that in China, the amount of plastic used in wet wipes reached 0.41 million tons in 2019. As for the comparison between distinct types of wet wipes, the comprehensive environmental impacts of bio-based wet wipes throughout the life cycle is 38% lower than that of petroleum-based wet wipes. The bio-based wet wipes outperform the petroleum-based ones in the lower resource consumption and toxicity risk, albeit it may induce water pollution. In the direct leakage scenario, bio-based wet wipes can avoid various risk of microplastic fibers disintegrated by polyester fibers. The main findings of this paper support the policy suggestions that bio-based wet wipes are proper alternatives for petroleum-based wet wipes, and it is essential to change consumers’ discarding behaviours to attenuate the leakage risk of wet wipes.

Thermodynamic and environmental analysis of solar-driven supercritical water gasification of algae for ammonia synthesis and power production

A novel system of solar-driven supercritical water gasification (SCWG) of microalgae for ammonia synthesis and power production was proposed to achieve chemical hydrogen storage with ammonia carrier. The system units mainly include SCWG, ammonia synthesis in supercritical water (SCW), power generation by supercritical water mixing fluid, organic Rankine circulating power generation, gas separation and circulating compression, and steam methane reforming. The system design and process simulation were implemented using Aspen plus. The thermodynamic performance of the system was analyzed. The life cycle environmental impact was evaluated with Simapro software. The results of thermodynamic analysis revealed that the energy efficiency, exergy efficiency, and energy consumption per ton of ammonia of the system were closely related to the microalgae concentration designed for the system. The simulation results presented the highest energy efficiency of 42.62% and exergy efficiency of 44.27% with the lowest energy consumption per ton of ammonia of 48.79 GJ/t. The circulating gas compressor was the largest electricity consumer and the heat loss of the coolers was the main reason for the energy loss of the system, indicating the direction of system optimization in the future. The evaluation of the life cycle environmental impact assessment showed that the plant operation stage contributed little to the overall environmental impact compared with the construction and dismantling stage. The values of the main midpoint indicator global warming potential (GWP) and endpoint indicator Human health could be as low as 0.69 kg CO2-eq·kg−1 NH3 and 8.17 × 10−5, respectively, under suitable design conditions. Compared with other ammonia synthesis routes, this work has great advantages in terms of thermodynamics and environmental impact, while it faces both opportunities and challenges. This research reveals the feasibility of SCWG of algae for ammonia synthesis and provides theoretical guidance for biomass cleaning conversion.

Life-cycle assessment of the environmental impact of the batteries used in pure electric passenger cars

The use of electric vehicles is for reducing carbon emissions, thereby reducing environmental pollution caused by transportation. However, the large-scale production and application of electric vehicle batteries have brought another notable issue, i.e., the production and application of these batteries also cause environmental pollution. Particularly, the precious metal materials used in the batteries are harmful to human health and the surrounding ecological system. Nowadays, many types of batteries are available. It is essential to understand which of them is most suitable for electric vehicles from the perspective of environmental protection. To answer this question, the life cycle environmental impact assessment of LiFePO 4 battery and Li(NiCoMn)O2 battery, which are being popularly used in pure electric passenger vehicles, are conducted in this paper. The research has shown that the two types of batteries show different environmental impact features in different phases. For example, LiFePO 4 batteries are more environmentally friendly in the phase of production, while Li(NiCoMn)O2 batteries are more eco-friendly in the application and transportation phases. Despite this, LiFePO 4 batteries are generally more environmentally friendly than Li(NiCoMn)O2 batteries from the perspective of the entire life cycle. In addition, the research results also suggest that due to the heavier mass, LiFePO 4 batteries can probably gain more benefit when used for energy storage.

Prolonging life cycles of construction materials and combating climate change by cascading: The case of reusing timber in Finland

The aim of this study is to investigate the economic, environmental and technological challenges, as well as the environmental potential, of prolonging the life cycle of construction materials with focus on structural timber in Finland. To achieve this, a literature review was conducted along with interviews with actors pertinent to timber construction. Moreover, a case study of life cycle environmental impact assessment was conducted to quantify the potential of reusing timber to abate global warming and other environmental burden. The literature review highlighted the possibility of reusing structural timber, but pointed to the need for efficient and standardized assessment criteria. The interviews indicated interest towards the concept of circular economy applied to construction and demolition wood material, although this appears to be driven more by policy and regulation rather than for business reasons. Therefore, a reconfigured conceptual framework to achieve circularity for wood is proposed, where material brokers would be used to connect different actors along the value chain. The paper concludes with a case study showing that reusing structural timber components can result in a significant reduction of the environmental burden.

The Significance of Scope 3 GHG Emissions in Construction Projects in Korea: Using EIA and LCA

In Korea, a greenhouse gas (GHG) environmental impact assessment (EIA) has been conducting since 2012, which sets the evaluation procedures and methods for GHG items during the EIA. However, the current EIA on GHG emissions can support wrong decision-making because the evaluation does not consider Scope 3 GHG emissions. Accordingly, this study proposed the life cycle EIA (LCEIA) method to identify changes in GHG emissions that need to be managed by considering Scope 3 GHG emissions in construction projects. The LCEIA method incorporates life cycle CO2 (LCCO2) including Scope 1, Scope, and Scope 3 GHG emissions using the concept of life cycle assessment (LCA) into the scoping step of the EIA process. The case study was conducted using existing EIA on GHG emission and LCEIA methodology for a development project in Gwangyang City. Scenario 1 is defined as an approach that calculates GHG emissions using the existing EIA method, and scenario 2 is also defined as a process using the LCEIA method. Results reveal that Scenario 2, including Scope 3 GHG emissions, had 46.4−51.2% more GHG emissions than Scenario 1. Sensitivity analysis for electricity and liquefied natural gas (LNG) density was also performed. Although the change in the carbon emission factor of electricity had a slightly sensitive effect on the research results, the LNG density was found to be less sensitive. This study believes the importance of switching to an EIA reflecting life cycle carbon dioxide (LCCO2) to calculate the exact amount of GHG emissions for construction work.

Life cycle assessment of a south European house addressing building design options for orientation, window sizing and building shape

The life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology has been extensively used to assess the environmental influence of alternative building construction; however, the influence of building design has seldom been assessed for Mediterranean climate. This article aims to evaluate the influence of three, often neglected, design options on the life cycle (LC) energy and environmental impacts of a south European single-family house: solar orientation, window sizing, and building shape. Using a parametric attributional LCA, the house's materials, construction, maintenance, and operation (heating and cooling) are analysed for different design scenarios. Annual operational energy, LC non-renewable primary energy (NRPE) and environmental LC impact assessment (LCIA) results are presented and discussed. Results show that embodied energy generally surpasses operational energy. Building orientation has less influence on LCIA results than on operational energy, particularly for compact shapes. Scenarios with bigger Window-to-Wall Ratio (WWR) have higher embodied impacts, being more sensitive to orientation due to solar gains. Lower WWR (5%) can be used to reduce the overall LC impacts, especially in houses with lower operational patterns. A compact shape building was shown to reduce heating impact, while a terraced and less compact shape reduces cooling impact. Compared with literature, this study reveals that, from a LC perspective, design options are as significant as construction options. Finally, design recommendations should be based on LCA and not only on operational results; nevertheless, a LCA single indicator (NRPE or Global Warming Potential) can be used to support decisions for alternative house designs with similar construction.

Comparative Life Cycle Environmental Impact Assessment of Renewable Electricity Generation Systems: A Practical Approach Towards Europe, North America and Oceania

This paper addresses the comparative environmental impacts of four different renewable-power plants, namely solar, wind, biomass and hydropower plants. Life-cycle impact analysis has been carried out by Institute of Environmental Sciences (CML), Eco-indicator 99, Cumulative Energy Demand (CED) and Ecopoints 97 methods, using the Ecoinvent database and SimaPro software. The superiority of this work is creating a comprehensive life-cycle inventory following a reliable global database, assessing the impacts for about 10 midpoint impact categories and three endpoint indicators, and taking account of the fossil-fuel-based energy consumption rate of each plant. The results show that photovoltaic power plants have the highest environmental impacts in the types of ozone layer depletion, fresh water aquatic ecotoxicity and marine aquatic ecotoxicity, while biomass plants impact on the categories of abiotic depletion, global warming, photochemical oxidation, acidification, and eutrophication. Moreover, the wind power plants have the more significant environmental effect on human toxicity and terrestrial ecotoxicity types. Overall, hydropower plants are found to be much more environment-friendly than other renewable electricity generation systems.

Life cycle environmental impact assessment of rice-crayfish integrated system: A case study

Rice-crayfish integrated system (RCIS) as a sustainable agricultural system has been widely and rapidly promoted in China. However, the environmental impact potential of RCIS is still unknown compared with conventional rice monoculture system (RM). A life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology was applied to characterize the environmental performance and potential improvement opportunities related to RM and RCIS, and a questionnaire survey of 300 farmers was carried out in Qianjiang city, China. Seven environmental impact categories, including non-renewable energy depletion (NED), global warming potential (GWP), acidification potential (AP), eutrophication potential (EP), human toxicity potential (HTP), freshwater toxicity potential (FTP) and soil toxicity potential (STP) were involved. Results showed that the NED and GWP were primary caused in off-farm stage, but the other environmental impact categories, including AP, EP, HTP, FTP, and STP were mainly occurred in the on-farm stage whether in RM or RCIS. Despite decreased chemical fertilizers and pesticides application in rice growing subsystem, the NED, GWP, AP, EP, HTP and STP were increased in RCIS by 84.30%, 89.37%, 61.88%, 95.87%, 98.06% and 70.78%, respectively, compared with RM. The crayfish farming subsystem produced more resources consumption, pollutant emissions and toxicity potential, with feed production and input being the primarily contributor to environmental impact categories in RCIS. The total environmental impact index from RCIS was 90.95% higher than that from RM. It is worth noting that obviously higher EP was produced in crayfish farming subsystem of RCIS, indicating that pollutant emissions resulted from aquaculture farming might be ignored and hidden in paddy fields. Based on these results, it is suggested that improving aquatic feed utilization, providing necessary technical training and guidance to farmers, and formulating environmental pollution risk control policies and punitive measures might be taken into consideration to ensure the effective use and sustainable development of rice-aquatic animal integrated system.

Life Cycle Environmental Impact Assessment of Three Urban Drainage Systems for Non-Point Source Pollution Control

Yang, C.Y.; Jiang, W.C., and Jian, N., 2020. Life cycle environmental impact assessment of three urban drainage systems for non-point source pollution control. In: Bai, X. and Zhou, H. (eds.), Advances in Water Resources, Environmental Protection, and Sustainable Development. Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue No. 115, pp. 367-372. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208.Existing studies on novel urban drainage systems for diffuse pollution control caused by combined sewer overflow and first flush runoff from separated sewer system generally focused on pollution control performances, of which environmental impacts from their life cycle failed to be comprehensively addressed. In this paper, life cycle environmental impacts of three novel urban drainage systems, namely, the combined system with CSO interception and treatment (P1), separate system with first flush interception (P2), and LID-equipped separate system (P3) were assessed. After analysing inventory based on resource and energy consumption, as well as pollutants emission, life cycle environmental impacts were evaluated via SimaPro 8.0 software and CML-IA baseline method associated with China LCI and Ecoinvent 3.0 databases, followed by contribution and sensitivity analysis for interpretation. The results indicated that: (1) The LID-equipped separate system was moderately the best drainage system for diffuse pollution control. (2) For wastewater collection and conveyance subsystems (S1), its operation in the combined system with CSO interception and treatment and its construction in LID-equipped separate system caused large environmental burden. (3) The LID-equipped separate system behaved the greatest sensitivity to the change of databases and service lifespan.

Life cycle environmental and energy impact assessment of sustainable urban municipal solid waste collection and transportation strategies

Collection and transportation of municipal solid wastes (MSWs) are essential parts of the sustainable urban municipal solid waste management (MWSM) strategy for municipalities. However, collection and transportation of the MSWs have always been challenging subjects for modelling of integrated MSWM systems by considering environmental and energy parameters. Thus, this study aims to investigate the environmental and energy impacts of urban MSW collection and transportation management systems from the life cycle assessment (LCA) perspective. The LCA approach was applied to the eleven district municipalities of Kayseri province by modelling three alternative MSW collection and transportation scenarios and modelling the current situation of five-metropolitan municipalities. Results showed that construction of transfer stations instead of landfills provide decreased environmental impacts for all impact categories and cumulative energy demand (CED) rates (reduced 44.9 % of the GWP impacts and 51.7 % of the CED scores). Also, it was observed that Scenario 1 consumed lower energy (4.14E + 3 MJ/ton) than other scenarios in terms of the CED results. Hereby, the findings of this work provide a low emission and energy consumption MSWM system modelling guideline and can be applied in municipalities with undeveloped MSWM strategy.

Life cycle assessment of maize cultivation and biomass utilization in northern Thailand

Maize, a major food source for the world, is a high-yield commodity crop, and one of five major crops in Thailand. Occupying about 33% of the Thai upland farmlands, maize farming has been growing tremendously especially in northern Thailand. However, after harvesting, open burning is widely used in order to get rid of maize cobs and husks in land preparation for the next period. The current maize farming practices have caused several problems to local communities as well as urban dwellers. The objectives of this research were: (i) to analyze the life cycle inventory of maize cultivation, maize cob pellet production and heavy fuel oil production in northern Thailand using IDEA v2.0 and ecoinvent v3.0 databases; (ii) to evaluate environmental impacts of maize cultivation, maize cob pellet production and heavy fuel oil production using A Global Scale Environmental Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LIME-3) with the results of weighting (Country-specific) based on monetary valuation of end-points. This study evaluated the life cycle environmental impacts of maize cultivation and continuing through biomass energy production from maize cob by comparing with heat production from heavy fuel oil in Mae Chaem and Chiang Dao districts in the north of Thailand by using two different databases, IDEA v2.0 and ecoinvent v3.0 with an endpoint-based life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) method (LIME-3). The system boundary of this study includes land preparation, planting, weeding, farming, harvesting, maize cob pellet production and heat production from maize cob pellet and heavy fuel oil. The units of analysis in this study are 1 kg of maize grain, 3.76E-03 MJ of biomass energy production from maize cob and 3.76E-03 MJ of heat production from heavy fuel oil, respectively. The data were obtained from field survey supplemented with the Thai National Life Cycle Inventory Database and other scientific publications. The results included the environmental impacts of maize cultivation and continuing through biomass energy production from maize cob by comparing with heat production from heavy fuel oil in Mae Chaem and Chiang Dao districts by using two different databases with LCIA method on the endpoint approaches (LIME-3). The total damage cost based on IDEA v2.0 life cycle inventory (LCI) database in Mae Chaem and Chiang Dao districts was about 4.64E-01 USD and 4.89E-01 USD, respectively. As regards ecoinvent v3.0 database, the total damage cost in Mae Chaem and Chiang Dao districts was about 5.37E-01USD and 5.99E-01 USD, respectively. It can be seen that the total damage cost using different inventory databases in Chiang Dao are slightly higher than Mae Chaem due to different input materials. The result of total cost using inventory data from ecoinvent v3.0 is slightly higher than IDEA v2.0 due to different inventory processes in each database. However, the results in this study demonstrated that the databases show similar trends in the assessment results. On the other hand, certain numerical differences between the databases at some points were found to be more substantial. The results of present study are particularly relevant to policy choices for improving or using the good practices for maize cultivation, which would reduce the environmental performance of maize production systems in the area. To address the air pollution issue from biomass open burning of agricultural residues in the study area, the government agencies in Thailand should be responsible for promoting better biomass management for the future.

Life cycle environmental impact assessment of biomass materials in Japan

The present study demonstrates how the environmentally weighted material consumption (EMC) indicator can be used to assess the resource efficiency of bioeconomy policies by calculating thirteen categories of environmental impacts associated with the production and the use of 146 biomass resources in Japan. The total environmental impact, expressed in the Japanese life cycle database in Japanese yen (JPY), decreased from 2,444 × 109 JPY in 1990 to 1,870 × 109 JPY in 2010. Supply chain related emissions (upstream) represented more than 98% of the impacts for all years. Land use, resource consumption, global warming, and urban air pollution were the main impact categories accounting respectively for 45%, 32%, 14% and 8% of the impacts. Ten products were found responsible for more than half of the impacts: rice, raw milk, beef cattle, painted printing paper, broiler, rolls of newsprint, hen egg, squares, common plywood and lumbers. Improvement of the production processes, reduction of consumed amounts and dietary change were identified as potential strategies for reducing the environmental impacts of these materials. Still, finding the best policy option may require the development of a life cycle assessment database able to differentiate organic and conventional agriculture and to better represent the production and environmental specificities of importing countries.

The energy consumption and emission of polyurethane pavement construction based on life cycle assessment

Polyurethane-bounded pavement with good road performances is a new pavement form. Whether polyurethane (PU) pavement met the requirements of energy conservation, environmental protection and sustainable development or not, the energy consumption and emission of PU pavement in whole life cycle were analyzed systematically in this paper. Firstly, the life cycle of pavement was divided into six phases: material production, mixture production, transportation, construction, maintenance and recycling according to the construction technology of road in China. Based on the classification of the life cycle environmental impact assessment (LCIA), the effects of six main exhaust gases (CO2, CH4, N2O, CO, SO2, NOx) were divided into four categories: Global Warming Potential (GWP), Eutrophication Potential (EP), Photochemical Smog Potential (POCP) and Acidification Potential (AP). Secondly, the energy consumption and emission of each phase are studied, and the main phase with significant environmental impact was selected. Thirdly, the results of inventory would be normalized and weighted to analyze the environmental impact by the life cycle impact assessment (LCIA). The LCIA method was environmental design of industrial product 97 (EDIP 97). Results show that the construction of PU pavement is conducive to energy conservation. Besides, the energy consumption of mixture production phase is the largest in asphalt pavement, and it is material production phase in PU pavement. In terms of emission, the emissions mainly occur in material production and mixture production phases in asphalt pavement, and it is material production phase in PU pavement. Under the same structure, the construction of PU pavement is not conducive to reducing the emission, and will enlarge the GWP, EP and AP. For example, the CO2, N2O and NOx emissions of PU pavement are 1.98, 5.30 and 2.35 times higher than that of asphalt pavement respectively, but the CO emission of asphalt pavement is 3.86 times higher than that of PU pavement. Furthermore, the results of LCIA show that the score of all environmental impact of PU pavement is little smaller than that of asphalt pavement after normalization and weighting. However, the road performances of PU pavement are much better than that of asphalt pavement. With the same environmental impact, PU pavement has a longer service life. It is summarized that PU pavement meets the requirements of environmental protection and sustainable development in the long run. This is conducive to the promotion and application of PU pavement.

Life cycle assessment and Monte Carlo simulation to evaluate the environmental impact of promoting LNG vehicles

•As a novel and alternative type of fuel for heavy-duty trucks, it is very important to assess a broad array of environmental impacts of liquefied natural gas (LNG). However, few studies have evaluated comprehensively the environmental impact of LNG as an alternative fuel on human health, ecosystems and resources from a life cycle perspective. In particular, the environmental benefit of promoting LNG vehicles is often complicated and uncertain due to many variable factors, which are also often not given enough attention. This method article describes the use of a combination of life cycle assessment (LCA) and Monte Carlo simulation to evaluate the potential environmental benefits of promoting LNG heavy-duty diesel vehicles in Saguenay, a city in Canada. It not only conducts a full-range analysis of environmental impacts, but also considers the impact of joint changes in uncertain factors such as methane emission rates, energy efficiency of engine and the project promotion prospects on the environmental benefits of LNG, making life cycle environmental impact assessment more systematic and comprehensive. The paper provides the details of all the steps used in the method and can be replicated and applied to other similar studies and research settings.•This combined approach provides a comprehensive assessment of the environmental impacts incurred by the promotion of LNG vehicles. Besides, it also provides a certain degree of risk assessment for LNG projects.•This method takes into account the complexity of the joint change of multiple uncertainties, which makes up for the deficiencies of previous studies that only analyze one uncertainty in isolation.•This method takes the development prospect of LNG promoting project as an uncertain factor for environmental benefit assessment.

Life cycle environmental impact assessment of coupled underground coal gasification and CO2 capture and storage: Alternative end uses for the UCG product gases

Underground coal gasification (UCG) has the potential to provide a source of energy or chemical feedstock derived from coal seams, where traditional mining methods are not suitable or are uneconomical. This paper presents the life cycle inventory models developed for the UCG processes and three alternative syngas utilisation options with and without CO2 capture and storage. The paper compares the life cycle carbon footprint of two different conventional above ground coal fired power generation options with UCG Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle power generation with/without CCS for two different lignites and one bituminous coal. One of the lignites is then used to compare the life cycle performance of different syngas utilisation options: power generation, ammonia production with power generation, and methanol production with power generation. It was found that the life cycle carbon footprint of conventional above ground coal fired power generation is very much dependent on the in-situ methane content of the coal used, and methane emissions experienced during mining and accompanying upstream processes, whereas the same for UCG-IGCC power depends more on the process dependent syngas composition. UCG methanol production with associated power and CCS is shown to release more life cycle CO2-eq emissions per tonne of lignite consumed than that of UCG ammonia production with associated power and CCS and UCG CCGT power generation with CCS. Furthermore, when chemicals production from UCG is considered as the main objective, the most substantial improvements in comparison to conventional methods are associated with UCG ammonia process per tonne of chemical produced.

A material and component bank to facilitate material recycling and component reuse for a sustainable construction: concept and preliminary study

This paper concerns the reusable components and recycled materials from demounted structures which may draw a large amount of waste in construction industry. By a series of literature review and analyses, a material and component bank was proposed to manage more effectively the recycling of materials and direct reuse of components even of whole components obtained from old structures to facilitate a more sustainable construction industry. The concept, main businesses, and work operation of the bank were illustrated in detail including its potential management method and supply chain. The relationship between the bank and current building information modeling, design for deconstruction, supply chain, and life cycle assessment based on the bank were then analyzed in detail. It can be concluded that the bank could pave the way for effectively performing a further and repaid reuse of components and perfecting current recycling of materials to contribute a more sustainable built environment from the view of various terms mentioned in this study. The bank also can link with current method of life cycle assessment or environmental impact assessment well, which all can promote the construction sustainability indicating the bank can be integrated into current construction industry easily for the future.

Using REACH for the EU Environmental Footprint: Building a Usable Ecotoxicity Database, Part I.

ABSTRACTThe European Union Environmental Footprint (EU‐EF) is a harmonized method to measure and communicate the life cycle environmental performance of products and organizations. Among 16 different impact categories included in the EU‐EF, 1 focuses on the impact of substances on freshwater ecosystems and requires the use of toxicity data. This paper evaluates the use of the aquatic toxicity data submitted to the EU Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) regulation. It presents an automated computerized approach for selecting substance ecotoxicity values, building on a set of quality and reliability criteria to extract the most relevant data points for calculating the substance specific hazard values. A selected set of criteria led to the exclusion of approximately 82% of the original REACH ecotoxicological data available as of May 2015 due to incomplete initial encoding of the data by the REACH registrant, missing information such as duration of exposure, endpoint measured, species tested, and imprecise toxicity values (i.e., reported with greater than or less than signs). From an initial set of 305 068 ecotoxicity data records available in the REACH database, the final usable database contains 54 353 toxicity records (29 421 characterized as acute and 24 941 as chronic) covering 9 taxonomic groups, with algae, crustaceans, and fish representing 93% of the data. This data set is valuable for assessing the environmental toxicity of the substance contained whether through traditional substance risk assessment, product toxicity labeling, life cycle assessment (LCA) or environmental impact assessment approaches. However, the resulting loss of approximately 82% of the data suggests that changes in procedures used to generate, report, and document the data within REACH are needed to improve data utility for the various assessment approaches. The rules used to select the data to be used are the primary focus of this article. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2019;15:783–795. © 2019 The Authors. Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of Society of Environmental Toxicology & Chemistry (SETAC).

Life cycle environmental impact assessment of contemporary and traditional housing in Palestine

Residential buildings consume a vast amount of energy throughout their whole-life cycles with the subsequent greenhouse gases (GHG) emitted in the atmosphere. This phenomenon will only be exacerbated by projected trends in excessive urbanisation and global population. It is therefore imperative to investigate and quantiatively evaluate the environmental impacts of housing in different regions and contexts in order to enable better and more informed decisions.This is even more urgent in cases where the possibility for urban development is limited or severely constrained. Palestine represents one such areas of the world, and this research focuses on a comparative life cycle assessment (LCA) of contemporary and traditional housing typologies in the region. Primary data has been collected to provide a reliable basis for the LCA, which has been carried out according to the existing international standards. In addition to energy demand and GHG emissions, additional environmental impact categories have been further evaluated to provide a more holistic sustainability analysis.Results – strengthened by an uncertainty analysis – show that environmental impacts, energy use, and global warming potential for contemporary houses are for the most much higher than those for traditional houses. This is mainly due to the high impact of concrete and steel, but further exacerbated by the low impact of limestone as a suitable building material for the region. The results presented in this article signpost an important starting point in investigating the real mitigation potential of specific materials (e.g., limestone and lime mortar) when employed at scale in specific regions of the world. Our findings can also contribute to developmental policies for the region, with an aim of reducing the anthropogenic pressure on the natural environment.

Life cycle environmental impact assessment of fuel mix-based biomass co-firing plants with CO2 capture and storage

As a carbon-neutral renewable energy source, biomass co-firing with coal contributes to reducing the carbon intensity of pulverized coal power plants with CO2 capture and storage; thus, this process significantly reduces the greenhouse gas emissions of the power industry. However, various types of environmental impacts caused by co-firing have hindered the large-scale deployment of this technology. In this study, ten life cycle assessment models were developed based on the Integrated Environmental Control Model and GaBi software to quantify the performance parameters of different power plants and the influence of the co-firing ratio on various environmental impact categories. The system boundaries included raw material acquisition, raw material transport, energy conversion of power plants, CCS and brine treatment. The results indicated that a pulverized biomass/coal co-firing power plant with CCS can achieve near-zero emissions at a co-firing ratio of 25% and negative emissions of 877 kg CO2-e/MWh from a life-cycle perspective when coal is totally replaced. Co-firing biomass and coal in power plants has a passive impact on seven environmental categories, such as the eutrophication potential and toxicity potential, rather than on the global warming potential, abiotic resource depletion potential and acidification potential. The major causes of environmental burden shifting are energy penalties and indirect emissions from high-energy-consumption processes, especially emissions of N2O, NH3 and ethylene oxide released during biomass extraction and solvent preparation. The conclusions and recommendations presented in this paper may have implications for deep decarbonization in other industrial sectors.

Sustainable consumption in mobility from a life cycle assessment perspective

The shift toward the adoption of sustainable lifestyles may be achieved with the support of environmental indicators, such as those obtained from Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). The aim of this paper was to perform a Consumer LCA of the potential environmental impacts of mobility habits of a generic consumer. This study also proposed a methodology for analyzing life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) results called Marginal Variation on Impact Assessment (MVIA). Mobility habits in lifestyles were modeled considering transportation to short and long-distance travels. The mobility alternatives considered were travel on foot, by bicycle, car (private and shared), bus, and airplane. Linear regression was applied to identify the marginal variation in aggregated single score results of transportation habits. Mobility with a private car had the highest environmental impact, whereas the use of a bus, bicycle and walking were the most sustainable alternatives. The results exhibited sensitivity to car-sharing. Taking flights for long-distance travels resulted in higher environmental impacts than other alternatives. Marginal Variation on Impact Assessment indicated that the consumer may find the greatest potential to change behavior and reduce impacts in mobility habits related to short-distance travels as well as by reducing the frequency of long-distance travels. The proposed MVIA methodology fits as a tool to support environmental life cycle impact assessment.