Search results for "Carbon footprint"
showing 10 items of 39 documents
Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Wastewater Treatment Plants on a Plantwide Scale: Sensitivity and Uncertainty Analysis
2016
This paper presents the sensitivity and uncertainty analysis of a mathematical model for greenhouse gas emission (GHG) and energy consumption assessment in wastewater treatment plants. A sensitivity analysis was carried out (using two different methods) to determine which model factors have the greatest effect on the predicted values of the GHG production. Further, an uncertainty analysis was carried out to quantify the uncertainty of the key model outputs, such as carbon dioxide production from activated sludge treatment. The results show that influent fractionation factors, which characterize influent composition, have an important role on direct and indirect GHGs production and emission.…
AnMBR, reclaimed water and fertigation: Two case studies in Italy and Spain to assess economic and technological feasibility and CO2 emissions within…
2020
[EN] The use of anaerobic membrane bioreactor (AnMBR) technology on urban wastewater can help to alleviate droughts, by reusing the water and nutrients embedded in the effluent in agriculture (fertigation) in line with Circular Economy principles. The combination of AnMBR and fertigation reduces CO2 emissions due to the organic matter valorization and the partial avoidance of mineral fertilizer requirements. However, both AnMBR and fertigation still face technological and regulatory barriers that need to be overcome. These bottlenecks were tackled within the first Innovation Deal approved by the European Commission in 2016, and gave rise to several case studies on water reuse systems. The r…
In Situ Analysis Devices for Estimating the Environmental Footprint in Beverages Industry
2019
Abstract The need to calculate the environmental footprint could mean the integration of sustainability in differentiation strategies for beverages industries. The parameters for estimating the footprint are outlined and discussed. The main negative impacts are related to water pollution, atmospheric pollution, and solid waste. Agro-industrial effluents may contain pesticides, complex oils, alkaline or acidic compounds, and other organic substances. As for atmospheric emissions, particulate material, SO2, NOx, hydrocarbons, and other organic compounds, can be mentioned. The state of art of in situ analysis devices for this purpose is described. The devices are compared through the tool CALI…
Assessing the carbon footprint across the supply chain: Cow milk vs soy drink
2022
Abstract Since livestock product consumption could have a significant effect on tackling climate change, in the few last years, there has been an increasing consumer demand for non-dairy alternatives. Despite plant-based beverages being considered crucial to foster the transition towards sustainable diet models, no studies have yet compared the level of emissions of plant-based beverages with animal-based ones. The present study aims at computing the carbon footprint of cow milk and that of soy drink and evaluating the carbon footprint results in the light of the substitutability of cow's milk with soy drink, analyzing the potential environmental, economic and nutritional trade-offs between…
A Life Cycle Environmental Impact Comparison between Traditional, Hybrid, and Electric Vehicles in the European Context
2021
Global warming (GW) and urban pollution focused a great interest on hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) and battery electric vehicles (BEVs) as cleaner alternatives to traditional internal combustion engine vehicles (ICEVs). The environmental impact related to the use of both ICEV and HEV mainly depends on the fossil fuel used by the thermal engines, while, in the case of the BEV, depends on the energy sources employed to produce electricity. Moreover, the production phase of each vehicle may also have a relevant environmental impact, due to the manufacturing processes and the materials employed. Starting from these considerations, the authors carried out a fair comparison of the environmental …
Quantifying Excess Deaths Related to Heatwaves under Climate Change Scenarios: A multicountry time series modelling study
2018
Background: Heatwaves are a critical public health problem. There will be an increase in the frequency and severity of heatwaves under changing climate. However, evidence about the impacts of climate change on heatwave-related mortality at a global scale is limited. Methods and findings: We collected historical daily time series of mean temperature and mortality for all causes or nonexternal causes, in periods ranging from January 1, 1984, to December 31, 2015, in 412 communities within 20 countries/regions. We estimated heatwave–mortality associations through a two-stage time series design. Current and future daily mean temperature series were projected under four scenarios of greenhouse g…
Greenhouse gases from wastewater treatment — A review of modelling tools
2016
Nitrous oxide, carbon dioxide and methane are greenhouse gases (GHG) emitted from wastewater treatment that contribute to its carbon footprint. As a result of the increasing awareness of GHG emissions from wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs), new modelling, design, and operational tools have been developed to address and reduce GHG emissions at the plant-wide scale and beyond. This paper reviews the state-of-the-art and the recently developed tools used to understand and manage GHG emissions from WWTPs, and discusses open problems and research gaps. The literature review reveals that knowledge on the processes related to N2O formation, especially due to autotrophic biomass, is still incompl…
Projections of temperature-related excess mortality under climate change scenarios.
2017
Background: Climate change can directly affect human health by varying exposure to non-optimal outdoor temperature. However, evidence on this direct impact at a global scale is limited, mainly due to issues in modelling and projecting complex and highly heterogeneous epidemiological relationships across different populations and climates. Methods: We collected observed daily time series of mean temperature and mortality counts for all causes or non-external causes only, in periods ranging from Jan 1, 1984, to Dec 31, 2015, from various locations across the globe through the Multi-Country Multi-City Collaborative Research Network. We estimated temperature–mortality relationships through a tw…
Impatti energetico-ambientali (e carbon footprint) del settore agroalimentare: il caso studio di tre prodotti siciliani
2017
La sostenibilità ambientale della filiera agro – alimentare è di primaria importanza per il raggiungimento degli obiettivi europei in tema di clima ed energia, considerato che il settore è responsabile di elevati consumi energetici e impatti ambientali. In tale contesto, nel presente lavoro è stata applicata la metodologia Life Cycle Assessment allo scopo di stimare gli impatti energetico – ambientali di tre tipologie di prodotti coltivati in aree di interesse naturalistico: la provola delle Madonie, il pane di Monreale e un olio monovarietale siciliano.
The Unintended Side Effects of Bioplastics: Carbon, Land, and Water Footprints
2020
(One Earth 3, 45–53, July 24, 2020) In the originally published version of this article, the authors inadvertently used global volumes of bioplastics in plastic packaging instead of European volumes for Figure 1C. After noticing this, the authors recalculated European bioplastic packaging consumption, and as such, Figure 1 and its legend have been corrected in the online article (as shown below) to reflect all data sources used for estimating European bioplastic volumes in Figure 1C. In the Experimental Procedures, the Data and Code Availability section has been updated, and the section “Estimation of European Bioplastic Volumes” has been added. Additionally, reference 69 is new, and two in…