Search results for "Life-cycle"
showing 10 items of 166 documents
A Conceptual Review on Using Consequential Life Cycle Assessment Methodology for the Energy Sector
2020
Energy is engaged in the supply chain of many economic sectors; therefore, the environmental impacts of the energy sector are indirectly linked to those of other sectors. Consequential life cycle assessment (CLCA) is an appropriate methodology to examine the direct and indirect environmental impacts of a product due to technological, economic or social changes. To date, different methodological approaches are proposed, combining economic and environmental models. This paper reviews the basic concept of CLCA and the coupling of economic and environmental models for performing CLCA in the energy sector during the period 2006–2020, with the aim to provide a description of the different tools, …
From the LCA of food products to the environmental assessment of protected crops districts: A case-study in the south of Italy
2010
In the present study, Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology was applied to evaluate the energy consumption and environmental burdens associated with the production of protected crops in an agricultural district in the Mediterranean region. In this study, LCA was used as a ‘support tool’, to address local policies for sustainable production and consumption patterns, and to create a ‘knowledge base’ for environmental assessment of an extended agricultural production area. The proposed approach combines organisation-specific tools, such as Environmental Management Systems and Environmental Product Declarations, with the environmental management of the district. Questionnaires were distribute…
Life Cycle Assessment of a compact Desiccant Evaporative Cooling system: The case study of the “Freescoo”
2016
Abstract The paper aims at exploring the performances of a compact Desiccant Evaporative Cooling system called “Freescoo” (Free Solar Cooling) in comparison to standard conventional technologies. The Freescoo – that aims at applications in the residential sector and in small office buildings and includes a photovoltaic–thermal system – is analyzed, its monitored performance discussed and reported: under cooling conditions an Energy Efficiency Ratio of 12.8 is calculated, that reaches 50.7 if also photovoltaic generation is considered. To assess the performance of the proposed system a Life Cycle Assessment study was performed to investigate the system covering all its life, from the product…
Life cycle assessment of roads: Material and process related energy savings
2018
The need for climate change mitigation calls for significant actions to match the sustainable development goals and, in this context, road construction and management play a relevant role (cf. EU Green Public Procurement Criteria for Road Design, Construction and Maintenance and Environmental Product Declarations - EPD). In such a context, the role of the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology is broadly recognized as a tool to quantify sustainability of processes and systems. This study aims at calculating the life-cycle energy and carbon footprint of a typical Italian urban road, including materials production, transportation, construction, maintenance, and rehabilitation. The LCA approa…
Life cycle assessment of low temperature asphalt mixtures for road pavement surfaces: A comparative analysis
2018
The increasing fuel consumption demand, the accelerated pressure imposed by the depletion of 5 scarce raw materials and the urgent environmental protection requirements are forcing the change of 6 pavement industry and academia community’s research endeavors towards the development of low 7 emissions road paving technologies able to significantly reduce mixing and compaction temperature as 8 well as the consumption of virgin raw materials. One set of relatively recent technologies in the field of 9 pavement materials that aims at addressing those concerns are the warm mix asphalt (WMA). In fact, 10 they have the potential to allow the reduction of energy consumption and airborne emissions d…
Environmental impact of Recover cotton in textile industry
2017
A comparative evaluation of the life cycle assessment (LCA) of Recover cotton, obtained from recycled garments, and virgin one, cultivated from traditional and organic crops, has been made based on the quantification of environmental impact categories, such as abiotic depletion, global warming, water use, acidification and eutrophication potential. LCA data reported in the literature for the steps of cultivation, ginning/cutting, and dyeing were compared in order to clearly show the environmental advantages of moving from traditional practices, to organic cultivation and the use of Recover cotton, a novel procedure that involves the production of cotton yarns from coloured and well characte…
Innovation Dynamics in Space: Local Actors and Local Factors
1997
This paper addresses the issue of technogenesis and its geographical pattern. It aims to offer both a general analysis framework and a test on innovation data from several European cities. This framework is mainly built on the product life-cycle and the incubation approach. On the basis of this framework, it is argued that the phases of an industrial life-cycle have several firm-specific effects. First, these phases influence innovativeness and thus profit levels, output and employment of firms in a spatially distinct way. Second, the phases of the life-cycle mirror the importance of local factors for innovations, and third, they affect strategic decisions of firms, inter alia by influencin…
Life-cycle effects in small business finance
2017
This paper studies the life-cycle profiles of small firms’ cost and use of credit using a panel of Finnish firms. The choice of method matters for the conclusions drawn about the relationship between firm age and financing costs; the cross-sectional age profiles of financing costs are hump-shaped and consistent with hold-up theories, whereas methods that control for cohort fixed effects demonstrate that the financing costs decrease monotonically as the firms mature. The life-cycle profiles of the use of credit also indicate that firms are more dependent on financial intermediaries in the early periods of their lives. Furthermore, the cohorts born during recessions pay higher financing costs…
The Role of re-design for Additive Manufacturing on the Process Environmental Performance
2018
Abstract At present, economic and technological design criteria for products and processes should be matched with the minimization of environmental impact objectives. Manufacturing, material production, and product design are strictly connected stages. The choice of a production system over another could result in significant material and energy/resource savings, particularly if the component has been properly designed for manufacturing. In this scenario, Additive Manufacturing, which has been identified as a potential disruptive technology, gained an increasing interest for the creation of complex metal parts. The paper focuses on the tools, based on the holistic modelling of additive and …
Subtractive versus mass conserving metal shaping technologies: an environmental impact comparison
2015
The scientific studies in the domain of environmental sustainability of metal processing technologies predominantly focus on conventional material removal processes, as milling and turning. Despite some exceptions, many other non-machining technologies, such as metal forming processes, are still not well documented in terms of their energy and resource efficiency. Moreover, to properly evaluate the environmental impact of a given process, a standing-alone approach is no longer sufficient. In order to offer a valuable contribution in the domain of metal shaping sustainability, the present paper proposes a thorough methodology entailing to compare, from the environmental point of view, two tr…