| 1. |
- Ahlgren, Serina, et al.
(författare)
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Review of methodological choices in LCA of biorefinery systems - key issues and recommendations
- 2015
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Ingår i: Biofuels, Bioproducts and Biorefining. - : Wiley. - 1932-1031 .- 1932-104X. ; 9:5, s. 606-619
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Forskningsöversikt (refereegranskat)abstract
- The current trend in biomass conversion technologies is toward more efficient utilization of biomass feedstock in multiproduct biorefineries. Many life-cycle assessment (LCA) studies of biorefinery systems have been performed but differ in how they use the LCA methodology. Based on a review of existing LCA standards and guidelines, this paper provides recommendations on how to handle key methodological issues when performing LCA studies of biorefinery systems. Six key issues were identified: (i) goal definition, (ii) functional unit, (iii) allocation of biorefinery outputs, (iv) allocation of biomass feedstock, (v) land use, and (vi) biogenic carbon and timing of emissions. Many of the standards and guidelines reviewed here provide only general methodological recommendations. Some make more specific methodological recommendations, but these often differ between standards. In this paper we present some clarifications (e.g. examples of research questions and suitable functional units) and methodological recommendations (e.g. on allocation).
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| 2. |
- de Klijn-Chevalerias, M., et al.
(författare)
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The Dutch approach for assessing and reducing environmental impacts of building materials
- 2017
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Ingår i: Building and Environment. - : Elsevier BV. - 0360-1323. ; 111, s. 147-159
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Buildings are one of the largest consumers of energy and materials, and hence they are also one of the largest contributors to negative environmental impacts. Traditionally, energy consumed by buildings during their operation phase was the most significant in their lifecycles and far exceeded the embodied energy. However, in contemporary low-energy buildings, the embodied energy is proportionally higher because of the prevalent use of energy-intensive materials. To determine the embodied energy and environmental impacts of building materials, the Dutch have developed an assessment method, which has also been adapted by BREEAM-NL. This paper offers an overview of the Dutch approach for assessing the environmental impacts of building materials and demonstrates its practical application. The use of the Dutch Assessment Method to identify, and quantify materials-related design improvements has been demonstrated through an exemplifying case study. It has been identified that the environmental impact of a building is largely influenced by the material choices made at the early design stage of the project.
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| 3. |
- Mauree, D., et al.
(författare)
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A review of assessment methods for the urban environment and its energy sustainability to guarantee climate adaptation of future cities
- 2019
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Ingår i: Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews. - : Elsevier BV. - 1879-0690 .- 1364-0321. ; 112, s. 733-746
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The current climate change is calling for a drastic reduction of energy demand as well as of greenhouse gases. Besides this, cities also need to adapt to face the challenges related to climate change. Cities, with their complex urban texture and fabric, can be represented as a diverse ecosystem that does not have a clear and defined boundary. Multiple software tools that have been developed, in recent years, for assessment of urban climate, building energy demand, the outdoor thermal comfort and the energy systems. In this review, we, however, noted that these tools often address only one or two of these urban planning aspects. There is nonetheless an intricate link between them. For instance, the outdoor comfort assessment has shown that there is a strong link between biometeorology and architecture and urban climate. Additionally, to address the challenges of the energy transition, there will be a convergence of the energy needs in the future with an energy nexus regrouping the energy demand of urban areas. It is also highlighted that the uncertainty related to future climatic data makes urban adaptation and mitigation strategies complex to implement and to design given the lack of a comprehensive framework. We thus conclude by suggesting the need for a holistic interface to take into account this multi-dimensional problem. With the help of such a platform, a positive loop in urban design can be initiated leading to the development of low carbon cities and/or with the use of blue and green infrastructure to have a positive impact on the mitigation and adaptation strategies.
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| 4. |
- Wasserbaur, Raphael, 1989-, et al.
(författare)
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What if everyone becomes a sharer? A quantification of the environmental impact of access-based consumption for household laundry activities
- 2020
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Ingår i: Resources, Conservation and Recycling. - : Elsevier BV. - 0921-3449 .- 1879-0658. ; 158
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In order to meet the EU's climate and resource efficiency targets, changes in our daily-life behaviours, as well as business models, are urgently necessary. More insights are needed to make real changes based on research with a systems perspective. We developed a system dynamics model to analyse the environmental benefits of a transition from ownership-based to access-based household laundry activities. The model considers demographic, technological and behavioural aspects and thereby assesses the environmental impact of laundry activities. The model is applied to the Swedish as well as the European context and allows cross-country comparisons. The results indicate a significant potential of the sharing economy. The higher utilisation of shared machines and extended lifespans of the machines can cut greenhouse gas emissions by a third and lower raw material usage overall and lower primary raw material in production due to higher recycling rates. The carbon intensity of the energy mix is a crucial factor for the environmental consequences that arise through changes in energy usage due to sharing economy practices. This case study shows the value of adopting policies that could promote sharing and extended life spans.
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| 5. |
- Ekener, Elisabeth, 1963-, et al.
(författare)
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Developing Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment methodology by applying values-based sustainability weighting - Tested on biomass based and fossil transportation fuels
- 2018
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Ingår i: Journal of Cleaner Production. - : Elsevier BV. - 0959-6526 .- 1879-1786. ; 181, s. 337-351
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The production and use of transportation fuels can lead to sustainability impacts. Assessing them simultaneously in a holistic way is a challenge. This paper examines methodology for assessing the sustainability performance of products in a more integrated way, including a broad range of social impacts. Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment (LCSA) methodology is applied for this assessment. LSCA often constitutes of the integration of results from social LCA (S-LCA), environmental life cycle assessment (E-LCA) and life cycle costing (LCC). In this study, an S-LCA from an earlier project is extended with a positive social aspect, as well as refined and detailed. E-LCA and LCC results are built from LCA database and literature. Multi Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) methodology is applied to integrate the results from the three different assessments into an LCSA. The weighting of key sustainability dimensions in the MCDA is performed in different ways, where the sustainability dimensions are prioritized differently priority based on the assumed values of different stakeholder profiles (Egalitarian, Hierarchist, and Individualist). The developed methodology is tested on selected biomass based and fossil transportation fuels - ethanol produced from Brazilian sugarcane and US corn/maize, and petrol produced from Russian and Nigerian crude oils, where it delineates differences in sustainability performance between products assessed. The outcome in terms of relative ranking of the transportation fuel chains based on sustain ability performance differs when applying different decision-maker profiles. This result highlights and supports views that there is no one single answer regarding which of the alternatives that is most sustainable. Rather, it depends strongly upon the worldview and values held by the decision maker. A key conclusion is that sustainability assessments should pay more attention to potential differences in underlying values held by key stakeholders in relevant societal contexts. The LCSA methodology still faces challenges regarding results integration but MCDA in combination with stakeholder profiles appears to be a useful approach to build on further.
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| 6. |
- Cardoso Chrispim, Mariana, Postdoktor, 1990-, et al.
(författare)
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Phosphorus recovery from municipal wastewater treatment : Critical review of challenges and opportunities for developing countries
- 2019
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Ingår i: Journal of Environmental Management. - Amsterdam : Elsevier. - 0301-4797 .- 1095-8630. ; 248
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Forskningsöversikt (refereegranskat)abstract
- The aim of this paper is to provide guidance in selecting phosphorus recovery options within the municipal wastewater treatment sector regarding developing countries. This critical review includes a brief contextualization of the resource-oriented sanitation paradigm, the discussion of processes for phosphorus recovery based on methods at full-scale, pilot-scale and laboratory-scale, and a concise discussion of the environmental impacts and benefits associated with phosphorus recovery strategies. Finally, the main challenges related to the implementation of resource recovery strategies, especially for phosphorous, were identified and discussed. According to the results, some of the main drivers for phosphorus recovery are the limited availability of phosphorus, increasing cost of phosphate fertilizers and reduction of maintenance costs. Currently, most of the operational processes are based on crystallization or precipitation from the digester supernatant. Struvite is the most common recovered product. The recovery rate of phosphorus from the liquid phase is lower (10–60% from wastewater treatment plant influent), than from sludge (35–70%) and from sludge ashes (70–98%). Phosphorus recovery remains challenging, and some barriers identified were the integration between stakeholders and institutions, public policies and regulations as well as public acceptance and economic feasibility. In developing countries, the implementation of nutrient recovery systems is challenging, because the main concern is on the expansion of sanitation coverage. Resource recovery approaches can provide benefits beyond the wastewater treatment sector, not only improving the sustainability of wastewater treatment operations, but generating revenue for the utility provider.
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| 7. |
- Högstrand, Sofia, et al.
(författare)
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Incorporation of main line impact into life cycle assessment of nutrient recovery from reject water using novel membrane contactor technology
- 2023
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Ingår i: Journal of Cleaner Production. - 0959-6526. ; 408
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) nutrient recovery has recently gained traction in the search for new pathways for fertilizer production. In particular, concentrated waste streams such as reject water from sludge digestion are suitable. The environmental impact of a novel nutrient recovery technology using a membrane contactor (NPHarvest) was examined with an environmental life cycle assessment (LCA). Impact hotspots were benchmarked against a comparable technology (struvite precipitation and ammonia stripping), and the impacts of the two technologies were found to be similar for most studied environmental impact categories. To allow for the inclusion of effects on other parts of the WWTP while limiting the general system boundaries to the reject water treatment, a novel approach to capture the main line impact was developed. The effects on the main line contributed substantially to the overall results. The overall results indicated clear nutrient recovery benefits related to substituted materials in mineral fertilizer production. Additionally, reject water nutrient recovery provided even greater benefits due to reduced N2O emissions and the reduced use of precipitation chemicals in the WWTP main line. Nonetheless, both nutrient removal and recovery were necessary for the two technologies to reach a net zero climate impact in their current pilot scales. Further development of the NPHarvest technology—such as mitigating NH3 emissions, exploring alternative input chemicals and optimizing energy consumption (especially for crystallizing the ammonium salt solution that is produced)—is recommended before full-scale implementation.
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| 8. |
- Johansson, Jakob, et al.
(författare)
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Screening Environmental Impact Reduction Enabled by Brass Reclamation through Hot Forging Operations
- 2020
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Ingår i: SPS2020 - Proceedings of the Swedish Production Symposium. - 9781614994398 ; 13, s. 241-248
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- The traditional method for recycling brass chips is to send the scrap back to the material manufacturer for re-melting. Alternatively, brass chips can be reclaimed through hot forging operations at the production site. As an initial screening of the environmental impact of this novel reclamation method, the impacts of this new method was compared to conventional brass production (including recycling) for a specific part. These two production routes were compared in terms of cumulative energy demand and climate change impact. The comparison between the two production routes showed that the new reclamation method reduced the cumulative energy demand with 29 % and climate change impact with 30 % for production of a specific part compared to conventional recycling. It is, however, important to note that the material produced using hot forging reclamation method have slightly lower mechanical properties as compared to the traditionally recycled material. Currently the novel recycling method is only tested in lab scale and therefore, further studies are needed in order to fully assess the environmental impacts of the new reclamation method compared to conventional brass production.
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| 9. |
- Li, Aoyong, 1993, et al.
(författare)
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High-resolution assessment of environmental benefits of dockless bike-sharing systems based on transaction data
- 2021
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Ingår i: Journal of Cleaner Production. - : Elsevier BV. - 0959-6526. ; 296
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Dockless bike-sharing systems (DLBS) have gained much popularity due to their environmentally friendly features. This study puts forward a distinctive framework for assessing the environmental influences of DLBS in high resolution based on DLBS transaction data. The proposed framework firstly estimates the transport mode substituted by DLBS for each recorded bike-sharing trip by utilizing the route planning techniques of online maps and a well-calibrated discrete choice model. Afterward, greenhouse gases (GHG) emission reductions in every recorded DLBS trip are quantified using Life Cycle Analysis. The proposed framework is applied to an empirical dataset from Shanghai, China. The empirical results reveal that the substitution rates of DLBS to different transport modes have substantial spatiotemporal variances and depend strongly on travel contexts, highlighting the necessity of analyzing the environmental impacts of DLBS at the trip level. Moreover, each DLBS trip is estimated to save an average 80.77 g CO2-eq GHG emissions versus than the situations without DLBS in Shanghai. The annual reduced GHG emissions from DLBS are estimated to be 117 kt CO2-eq, which is substantial and equals to the yearly GHG emissions of over 25,000 typical gasoline passenger vehicles. Additionally, the associations among built environments and GHG emission reductions from DLBS are quantitatively investigated to shed light on the spatial variances in the environmental impacts of DLBS. The results can efficiently support the benefit-cost analysis, planning, and management of DLBS.
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| 10. |
- Melander, Lisa, 1983, et al.
(författare)
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Drivers for and barriers to electric freight vehicle adoption in Stockholm
- 2022
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Ingår i: Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment. - : Elsevier BV. - 1361-9209. ; 108
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Freight transport in urban areas needs to become more sustainable. There is much potential to reduce emissions by transitioning to electric freight vehicles (EFVs). The context of this study is Sweden, a country with ambitious goals for transitioning to fossil-free road transport that in-centivizes the adoption of EFVs through regulations, subsidies and environmental zones. How -ever, it seems that few companies are adopting EFVs. This paper aims to explore why that is by investigating drivers for and barriers to the adoption of EFVs. An embedded case study of five firms in Stockholm that are exploring the possibilities of using EFVs is conducted. The findings reveal a number of drivers and barriers, which are then categorized as internal, external or governmental. The results show uncertainties at the micro, meso and macro levels. Uncertainties relate to political and legal uncertainties, technological and infrastructure-related uncertainties, customer expectations and willingness to pay, and operational uncertainties.
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