Search results for "Life cycle assessment"

Energy-related GHG emissions balances: IPCC versus LCA

2017

Addressing climate change is one of the greatest environmental challenges. Due to the impact of cities to energy consumption, the involvement of the local authorities in environmental policies is rapidly increasing. The Covenant of Mayors (CoM), launched by the European Commission, is an urban initiative aimed at reducing CO2 emissions. The signatories have to compile the greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) balance of their territory and, to do so, they can use the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) or the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). Moreover, the signatories have to define strategies to reduce the GHG emissions. In this context, authors estimate the GHG balance of an Italian muni…

Life Cycle Environmental Impacts and Health Effects of Protein-Rich Food as Meat Alternatives: A Review

2022

The food sector is responsible for a considerable impact on the environment in most environmental contexts: the food supply chain causes greenhouse gas emissions, water consumption, reduction in cultivable land, and other environmental impacts. Thus, a change in food supply is required to reduce the environmental impacts caused by the food supply chain and to meet the increasing demand for sufficient and qualitative nutrition. Large herds of livestock are inappropriate to achieve these goals due to the relevant impact of meat supply chain on the environment, e.g., the land used to grow feed for animals is eight times more than that for human nutrition. The search for meat alternatives, espe…

INNOVATIVE APPLICATIONS OF EXERGY ANALYSIS AND THERMOECONOMICS IN CHEMICAL, THERMAL AND COOLING ENERGY CONVERSION SYSTEMS

Since 70s, the world has been becoming more and more concerned about energy and environmental issues. The need of meeting the current energy demand by guaranteeing the ability of future generation to satisfy theirs have been pushing research not only to exploit alternative energy sources such as renewable energies, but also to improve the efficiency of energy conversion systems. To this regard, developing systems that use efficiently energy is of paramount importance especially in those countries which rely on non-renewable energy sources such as oil, natural gas, and coal. In fact, the reduction of energy consumption will lead not only to the saving of unrestorable and limited energy resou…

Introducing exergy analysis in life cycle assessment: A case study

2018

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a methodology for assessing the potential environmental aspects associated with a product or service along its life cycle. However, in the case of energy technologies, it is suggested that the LCA of a product encompasses also further aspects other than environmental aspects and primary energy calculations. In particular, to optimize the reduction of raw materials during the whole life cycle, it is important to introduce the assessment of the irreversibility, applying the exergy analysis. In this paper, an integrated approach of exergy analysis and LCA is proposed, developing the Life-cycle quality index able to suggest potential exergy inefficiencies and the …

A life cycle assessment of tri-generation from biomass waste: The experience of the “agro-combined” of Thibar

2020

Abstract The paper presents a life cycle assessment of energy produced by biogas obtained by biomass waste and fuelled in a tri-generation pilot plant located in Tunisia. The results, referred to 1 MJ of exergy, showed that the plant construction causes 76% of primary energy consumption and gives a contribution higher than 90% on resource depletion and ionizing radiation, and of 50% on ozone depletion. Operation causes 66% of the impact on human toxicity—cancer effects and more than 90% of the other impacts, except for ecotoxicity of freshwater mainly caused during the end of life. The study is one of the first applications of environmental analysis to tri-generation from waste in developin…

Modeling the energy and environmental life cycle of buildings: A co-simulation approach

2017

Abstract Building simulation is currently looking towards interdisciplinary experiences, aiming to the integration of simulation tools in different technical domains. At the same time, the interest of the building community to high performance buildings has also strengthened the interest on Life Cycle performances of such buildings, due to the reduction in their operational stage impacts. In this context, the paper proposes an integration of building simulation and Life Cycle Assessment through the programming of a TRNSYS component. It can perform Life Cycle Assessment studies, while having as output as well energy balances and energy and environmental payback times. Currently, the tool is …

A Constructal Law optimization of a boiler inspired by Life Cycle thinking

2018

Abstract The aim of the paper is to explore how design optimization contributes to a technology's ecological evolution. The article develops this concept through an application of Constructal Law, used to account for the “evolution” of technologies design (configuration, shape, structure, pattern, rhythm), and Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), used for quantifying the environmental impacts of the design choices. The combination of both methods assesses how technology evolution affects the environment during its life, extending the concept of evolution of design. The study is applied to a case study of a real biomass boiler. The study analyses basic case and a series of alternative scenarios opti…

Energy and environmental life cycle assessment of an institutional catering service: An Italian case study

2019

Food production is recognised as one of the major drivers for global environmental pressure. In the last years, changes in consumption models result in an increasing population consuming food out of home that pose the catering service sector at the centre of the European Union policies aimed at improving the environmental sustainability of the food sector. In this framework, better technical knowledge on the environmental impacts of catering service is essential in order to identify potential actions towards a more sustainable food sector. This article presents an environmental assessment of a school catering service operating in Italy and delivering approximately 2,518,128 meals per year. …

The use of Genetic Algorithms to solve the allocation problems in the Life Cycle Assessment

2011

The paper applies a GA (Genetic Algorithms) to a multi-output productive process of essential oils, natural and concen-trated juices from oranges and lemonsThe results obtained for the case study taken into consideration showed that the application of GA allows to respect the energ y and mass balances for the examined system .

Environmental Sustainability Approaches and Positive Energy Districts: A Literature Review

2021

During the last decade, increasing attention has been paid to the emerging concept of Positive Energy Districts (PED) with the aim of pushing the transition to clean energy, but further research efforts are needed to identify design approaches optimized from the point of view of sustainable development. In this context, this literature review is placed, with a specific focus on environmental sustainability within innovative and eco-sustainable districts. The findings show that some sustainability aspects such as sustainable food, urban heat islands mitigation and co-impacts, e.g., green gentrification, are not adequately assessed, while fragmented thinking limits the potential of circularit…