A circular economy life cycle costing model (CE-LCC) for building components

The building industry is responsible for the highest resource use, amount of waste and emissions of all industries. The principles of the Circular Economy (CE) could offer an approach to create a more sustainable built environment. For a transition towards a circular built environment, a comprehensive assessment method is needed to support...

Parameter optimization of environmental technologies using a LCA-based analysis scheme: A bioaugmentation case study

Life cycle assessment (LCA) has proven to be a useful tool in assessing environmental technologies in a retrospective manner. To fully uncover the environmental improvement potential while advancing technologies under technical and environmental constraints, this study recommended approaching the LCA proactively to assess the progress of...

Assessing the life-cycle sustainability of algae and bacteria-based wastewater treatment systems: High-rate algae pond and sequencing batch reactor

High Rate Algae Ponds (HRAPs) are a promising technology for the treatment of municipal wastewater in locations with sufficient space and solar radiation. Algae-based processes do not require aeration, and thus have the potential to be less energy-intensive than activated sludge processes. We used a combination of LCA and LCCA analysis to...

Can bioenergy with carbon capture and storage result in carbon negative steel?

This paper explores the potential of achieving negative emissions in steelmaking by introducing bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) in multiple steelmaking routes, including blast furnace and HIsarna smelt reduction, and Midrex and ULCORED direct reduction. Process modelling and life cycle assessment were used to estimate CO<sub...

Environmental trade-offs of renewable jet fuels in Brazil: Beyond the carbon footprint

The use of renewable jet fuels (RJFs) is an option for meeting the greenhouse gases (GHG) reduction targets of the aviation sector. Therefore, most of the studies have focused on climate change indicators, but other environmental impacts have been disregarded. In this paper, an attributional life cycle assessment is performed for ten RJF...

Life cycle assessment of nutrient recovery from wastewater – current methodological practices

Life cycle assessment (LCA) is an established methodology to assess the potential environmental impacts of products and processes. We reviewed 49 recent LCA studies (2010-2019) on wastewater nutrient recovery to synthesise some current methodological practices. Their scopes, variations, nutrient recovery accounting, uncertainty and sensitivity...

Sustainability of Railway Passenger Services: A Review of Aspects, Issues, Contributions and Challenges of Life Cycle Emissions

This paper presents a review of research and models regarding sustainability of railway passenger services. In order to take into account all relevant aspects in terms of environmental impacts of a railway passenger service, a holistic system perspective is required, that includes a whole life cycle assessment. A life cycle approach is important...

Eco-efficiency assessment of technological innovations in high-grade concrete recycling

The increasing volume of Construction and demolition waste (CDW) associated with economic growth is posing challenges to the sustainable management of the built environment. The largest fraction of all the CDW generated in the member states of the European Union (EU) is End-of-life (EOL) concrete. The most widely applied method for EOL concrete...

Metrics of Green Chemistry and Sustainability: Past, Present, and Future

The first green chemistry metrics - the E factor (kgs waste/kg product) and atom economy (mol wt of product/sum of mol wts of starting materials) - were introduced in the early 1990s and were actually green chemistry avant la lettre. In the last two decades, these two metrics have been adopted worldwide by both academia and industry. The E...

Set organic pollution as an impact category to achieve more comprehensive evaluation of life cycle assessment in wastewater-related issues

For wastewater-related issues (WRI), life cycle assessment (LCA) is often used to evaluate environmental impacts and derive optimization strategies. To promote the application of LCA for WRI, it is critical to incorporate local impact of water pollutants. Organic pollution, a main type of water pollution, has not been given much consideration...

Environmental and exergetic sustainability assessment of power generation from biomass

Power generation from biomass is mentioned as a means to make our society more sustainable as it decreases greenhouse gas emissions of fossil origin and reduces the dependency on finite energy carriers, such as coal, oil and natural gas. When assessing the sustainability of power generation from biomass, it is important to consider the supply...

Closing carbon cycles: Evaluating the performance of multi-product CO₂ utilisation and storage configurations in a refinery

Carbon capture and utilisation (CCU) has the potential to provide business cases as CO₂ waste streams are turned into feedstock for the synthesis of marketable products. Although CCU could reduce fossil resource demand, its capability as a climate change mitigation option is under debate. In contrast to single-product CCU, this...

An LCA-based evaluation of biomass to transportation fuel production and utilization pathways in a large port’s context

This study evaluates whether a transition of large ports facilities to biofuel production for mobility improves the environmental performance and satisfies the renewable energy directive (RED) and it is the first LCA study that considers biofuel production from torrefied wood. The systems studied are wood, torrefied wood, and straw pellets...

Effects of the life span of products in LCA - A case study for dwellings