Search results for " global warming potential"

Life Cycle Assessment of solar heating and cooling systems: the tool “ELISA”

2018

Solar heating and cooling (SHC) systems play an important role in the achievement of energy and climate European goals. The benefits of these technologies should be evaluated taking into account their lifecycle energy and environmental impacts, calculated by applying the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology. The development of a complete LCA can be difficult and time-consuming particularly for no-LCA experts, discouraging them in the inclusion of the lifecycle perspective in their assessments. To overcome this limit, the paper presents “ELISA - Environmental Lifecycle Impacts of Solar Air-conditioning systems”, a user-friendly simplified tool for estimating the lifecycle energy and envir…

Greenhouse gases from sequential batch membrane bioreactors: A pilot plant case study

2016

Abstract The paper reports the results of nitrous oxide (N 2 O) emissions from aerobic and anoxic tank of a Sequential Batch Membrane Bioreactor (SB-MBR) pilot plant. The influence of salinity variation on N 2 O emission was analyzed by gradually increasing the inlet salt concentration from 0 to 10 g NaCl L −1 . The observed results showed that the N 2 O concentration of the gaseous samples was strongly influenced by the salt concentration. This result was likely related to a worsening of the nitrification activity due to the effect of salinity on autotrophic bacteria. Dissolved oxygen concentration and salinity were found to be the key factors affecting N 2 O concentration in the gaseous s…

Life cycle assessment of a new industrial process for sustainable construction materials

2023

One of the key sectors for the green transition of European countries is construction, that is more and more asked to evolve towards innovative ecological binders and green cost-effective processes. The construction sector is highly energy intensive, and the cement production is one of the main sources of environmental pollution in the world. In this regard, GeoPolymers (GP) seem to be promising for a sustainable replacement of cementitious materials. Therefore, the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of the industrial production of different formulations of Geopolymer Concrete (GC) was performed in this study after scaling up the Life Cycle Inventory (LCI) from a laboratory scale to an industrial …

Energy balance and life cycle assessment of small size residential solar heating and cooling systems equipped with adsorption chillers

2017

Abstract Solar heating and cooling systems for space heating and cooling are experiencing a growing trend and interest. However, the actual energy and environmental performance of small/medium size installations is not clearly foreseeable. In this paper, an analysis of such systems using adsorption chillers in different European climates is presented. Solar systems have been simulated in TRNSYS and compared to a conventional system employing a vapour compression unit. The results have been used for a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) study, determining the potential impact during the whole life of the system, from raw materials supply to its end-of-life. The LCA has been carried out by using the …

Towards a conceptual mathematical tool linking physical and biological processes for a reduction of ghg emissions from an mb-mbr plant

2016

The current study explores the influence of the air flow rate on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (direct and indirect), the operational costs (OCs), the effluent quality index (EQI) and effluent fines (EF). An University Cape Town (UCT) moving bed (MB) membrane bioreactor (MBR) pilot plant has been considered as case study where the influence of the air flow rate on the biological and physical processes has been analyzed. Constitutive relationships between the air flow rate and some performance indicators (i.e., EQI, OCs, direct and indirect GHG emissions) have been identified. Results showed that the EQI increases at low flow rate likely due to the dissolved oxygen (DO) limitation in the bi…

Energy and environmental analysis of a mono-familiar Mediterranean house

2008

Energy-environmental assessment of the UIA-OpenAgri case study as urban regeneration project through agriculture

2020

Abstract Sustainable agriculture is strongly promoted by Agenda 2030 and peri-urban agriculture is considered strategic for agri-food sustainability. Although, innovative farming practices are being implemented, the analysis of their impacts often does not reach the required depth. Within the EU project ‘UIA-OpenAgri - New Skills for new Jobs in Peri-urban Agriculture’, a regeneration process of a peri-urban area in Milan (Italy) was started, through the development of an innovative food hub. 28 innovative foodchains are assessed by a Life Cycle Assessment approach based on primary data collected from the involved start-ups. Non-Renewable Cumulative Energy Demand and the Global Warming Pote…