Contribution of capital goods production to social impacts: A life cycle perspective for a circular desalination plant

The production of capital goods is often ignored in the life cycle inventory phase of life cycle assessment studies. In this study, we investigated whether capital goods production, i.e., manufacturing of capital equipment and construction of infrastructure, and operation affect the results of the social life cycle assessment (S-LCA), using a...

Type I Social Life Cycle Assessments: Methodological Challenges in the Study of a Plant in the Context of Circular Economy

Policymakers need to know where the social externalities of products occur in order to act at the macro level. The Social Life Cycle Assessment (S-LCA) method can contribute to the assessment of the social externalities of products; a necessary method supporting the European Union while they transitioning to a circular economy. This study...

Assessing the environmental performance of a novel coal mine brine treatment technique: A case in Poland

Although the energy transition results in decreased use of coal for power production, hard coal extraction will continue due to its importance in steel production and coal mine wastewater will continue generating after mines closure. The coal mining sector produces wastewater which results in environmental burdens and often contains valuable...

Safe-and-Sustainable-by-Design Framework Based on a Prospective Life Cycle Assessment: Lessons Learned from a Nano-Titanium Dioxide Case Study

Safe-and-sustainable-by-design (SSbD) is a concept that takes a systems approach by integrating safety, sustainability, and functionality throughout a product’s the life cycle. This paper proposes a framework based on a prospective life cycle assessment for early safety and sustainability assessment. The framework’s purpose is to identify...

Developing social life cycle assessment based on corporate social responsibility: A chemical process industry case regarding human rights

MSocial Life Cycle Assessment (S-LCA) uses a life cycle perspective to assess social impacts of products, and the S-LCA guidelines describe developing the system boundaries based on a factory-level perspective. However, such a perspective may exclude stakeholders with a negative social performance which are cooperating with a factory but are...

Application of LCA and LCC in the early stages of wastewater treatment design: A multiple case study of brine effluents

Technological developments are opening new avenues to facilitate the circular economy through resource recovery from industrial wastewater. This paper presents the use of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Life Cycle Costing (LCC) in the development of technology solutions for the treatment of brine wastewater and recovery of by-products. Four...

Integrating individual behavior dimension in social life cycle assessment in an energy transition context

Energy transition is a result of mankind’s reaction to climate change and individuals are expected to have a crucial role in achieving it in developed countries. The purpose of this study is to apply the social life cycle assessment (S-LCA) tool and investigate the social performance of the Dutch energy transition while focusing on individual...

Social life cycle assessment of brine treatment in the process industry: A consequential approach case study

Social life cycle assessment (SLCA) was developed to complement the environmental life cycle assessment (LCA) and economic assessment. Contrary to LCA, SLCA is not yet standardized, and the consequential approach is little discussed in literature. This study aims to perform a consequential SLCA and investigate the applicability of the method...

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...

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...