Search results for "environmental impacts"
showing 10 items of 35 documents
A Comparison of Solar and Conventional Pavements Via Life Cycle Assessment
2023
The sustainable and green development of roads is lately receiving significant attention. As a multi-functional road capable of both accommodating traffic loads and generating clean energy, solar pavements exhibit a strategic opportunity for the future path of development in the road engineering. Although solar pavements have significant environmental benefits during their operation, they can lead to increased carbon emissions during the process of material preparation, construction, maintenance, etc. Therefore, it is essential to implement the framework of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) to investigate their potential environmental impacts and/or benefits. Hence, this paper systematically anal…
Composition of mosses, their metabolites and environmental stress impacts
2018
Sūnas ir nozīmīga augu grupa ar plašu izplatību. Sūnu sastāva pētījumi ir kļuvuši aktuāli, ņemot vērā bioloģiski aktīvu savienojumu klātbūtni un augsto izturību pret vides apstākļu mainību. Promocijas darba mērķis ir analizēt sūnu sastāvu, to metabolītus un vides stresa ietekmes uz tiem. Veikta sūnu sekundāro metabolītu ekstrakcijas apstākļu izpēte, kas nodrošina liela skaita vielu identifikāciju. Sūnu lipīdi satur daudzas bioloģiski aktīvas vielas un veikta to aktivitātes izpēte. Sūnu sekundārie metabolīti uzrāda augstu antimikrobiālo aktivitāti un spējas inhibēt vairāku vēža šūnu līniju attīstību un līdz ar to satur perspektīvas vielu grupas izmantošanai biomedicīnā. Vides stresa ietekmes…
Life Cycle Assessment of olive oil: a case study in Southern Italy
2018
The paper describes the results of a specific LCA based analysis of the production of oil in the region of Calabria, in southern Italy. The goal of the study is to assess the energy and environmental impacts of different scenarios involving conventional and organic cultivations, plains and hills cultivations and involving different operating techniques. The study also aims at assessing the share of each life cycle step on the total of energy and environmental impacts. The functional unit chosen for the comparative analysis is a glass bottle of 0.75 l of extra-vergine oil. A “from cradle to gate” perspective was chosen. The analysis was developed according to the LCA standards of the ISO 140…
Life Cycle Assessment of electricity production from refuse derived fuel: A case study in Italy
2020
Biomasses and bio-waste have an important role in decarbonizing the European energy mix, the latter contributing to the transition towards a circular economy. In particular, Refuse Derived Fuel (RFD) - a biofuel obtained from dry residue of waste - appears a really interesting energy option. In this framework this study aims at assessing the environmental profile of electricity generation from RDF in Italy, comparing two different kinds of RDF production and combustion plants. The functional unit is 1 kWh of net electricity from RDF delivered to the grid. Two Italian plants are examined: one located in Ravenna (RDF is produced in a direct flow treatment plant) and the other one in Bergamo (…
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…
A new sustainable food delivery platform
2022
In recent years, the food delivery business has expanded with great success and during the last months, pandemic have contributed to the growth of online food delivery. Consequently, with this fast growth of the online food delivery commerce, it’s important to analyze its environmental effects. In fact, the downside is represented by the enormous volume of waste produced by this market, consisting of packaging mostly made with materials such as paper, cardboard, plastic, and aluminum; a problem which, in relation to the volume of orders and the limits of separate collection that is not always efficient, leads to a quantity of unmanaged waste. This study aims to assess the impact of urban fo…
Artificial Neural Networks to assess energy and environmental performance of buildings: An Italian case study
2019
Abstract Approximately 40% of the European energy consumption and a large proportion of environmental impacts are related to the building sector. However, the selection of adequate and correct designs can provide considerable energy savings and reduce environmental impacts. To achieve this objective, a simultaneous energy and environmental assessment of a building's life cycle is necessary. To date, the resolution of this complex problem is entrusted to numerous software and calculation algorithms that are often complex to use. They involve long diagnosis phases and are characterised by the lack of a common language. Despite the efforts by the scientific community in the building sector, th…
Energy and Environmental Life Cycle Assessment of asphalt pavements: A Scenario Analysis for Urban Roads
2018
This paper aims at calculating the life-cycle energy and the environmental impacts pertaining to roads management, including materials production, transportation, construction, maintenance, and rehabilitation. A life-cycle approach is applied to assess energy and environmental impacts of a typical Italian urban road, according to the ISO 14040 series. In more detail, the Authors assess the energy and environmental profile of different optimized scenarios of bituminous mixtures. The aim of scenario analysis is to identify the less impacting scenario from an energy and environmental point of view. For each analysed scenario, the contribution of each life-cycle step to the total impacts and th…
Life cycle methods for environmental assessment of nanotechnology
2012
Tämä tutkielma on kirjallisuuskatsaus, joka antaa yleissilmäyksen erilaisiin elinkaarimetodeihin, joilla voidaan arvioida nanoteknologiaa sisältävien tuotteiden ympäristövaikutuksia. Työssä selvitetään elinkaariajattelun tärkeys ja kuvataan erilaisia ympäristöarviointimenetelmiä. Tässä tutkielmassa tarkastellut menetelmät ovat elinkaariarvionti (LCA), hiilijalanjälki, vesijalanjälki, ekologinen jalanjälki ja ekologinen selkäreppu (MIPS). Työ käsittelee nanoteknologiaan liittyviä ympäristöasioita ja tarkastelee elinkaarimenetelmien soveltamista ja soveltuvuutta nanoteknologiaan. Työn tuloksena raportoidaan, että kuvatut ympäristöarviointimenetelmät soveltuvat nanoteknologian vaikutusten arvi…
Legumes in 21st century Europe: present and future importance in agri-food systems? New challenges for reseach.
2013
Intensification of agriculture since 1950 has globally led to the decline of grain legume crops, which currently represent less than 3 % of arable crops in France and Europe. Nevertheless, legumes have several major assets (i) as plant proteins for animal feed and human food and (ii) as plants fixing atmospheric N2 and thereby saving nitrogen inputs in cropping systems, and (iii) as diversification crops. The analysis of forage and grain legume producing systems in France showed that the dominant system results in a lock-in of the different factors limiting legume insertion into the current systems. But legumes could have a major role to play in the agroecological transition towards more su…