1,721,022 research outputs found
Industrial symbiosis in Emilia-Romagna region: Results from a first application in the agroindustry sector
No full textAn Industrial Symbiosis application was developed within the "Green Economy and Sustainable Development" project in Emilia-Romagna region (IT), promoted by Unioncamere Emilia-Romagna and ASTER, with the technical and scientific coordination of ENEA. Aim of the project was the development of cross-relations between production sectors, industrial research and territory and boosting circular economy. It was the first application of Industrial Symbiosis in Emilia-Romagna with the involvement of 13 companies from agro-industry and 7 laboratories. The main steps were: (1) selection of companies and research laboratories to be involved into the project; (2) focus group, for companies and labs, where ENEA presented Industrial Symbiosis and contribution asked at each participant; (3) companies were requested to fill-in input-output tables, for sharing information about resources used and waste/by-products generated; (4) elaboration of collected data and feedback to labs for asking their contribution in looking for potential applications for shared resources; (5) data elaboration for identifying potential synergies between companies; (6) labs were requested to fill-in "origin-destination" data tables, for identifying feasible valorization processes for valorizing shared waste and by-products streams; (7) meeting with companies and labs for presenting results and having their feedback; (8) data elaboration highlighting most interesting synergies; (9) final meeting with results presentation open to participants and stakeholders. The project identified 8 main resource streams, 28 feasible destinations, and 90 potential synergies involving not only companies participating in the project, but also other companies in Emilia-Romagna. The development of each single synergy, identifying conditions for its actual implementation is the object of the second phase of the project which is ongoing (October 2014 - June 2015)
Life cycle assessment in market, research, and policy: Harmonization beyond standardization
No full textThis article introduces the special series “LCA in Market Research and Policy: Harmonization beyond standardization,” which was generated from the 19th SETAC Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) Case Study Symposium held November 2013, in Rome, Italy. This collection of invited articles reflects the purpose of symposium and focuses on how LCA can support the decision-making process at all levels (i.e., in industry and policy contexts) and how LCA results can be efficiently communicated and used to support market strategies. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2015;11:370–372. © 2015 SETAC. © 2015 SETA
Life cycle assessment of an innovative lithium-ion battery recycling route: A feasibility study
No full textThe number of end-of-life (EoL) lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) has increased worldwide. Yet, current recycling technologies are unoptimized. In this study, a recycling route consisting of LIB dismantling, discharge, cell opening, thermal pretreatment, leaching and precipitation was investigated in a life cycle assessment (LCA) approach. The final goal of the study was to understand the process feasibility, by adopting hotspot and scenario analyses, and economic evaluation as supporting tools. Primary data was used as input for the LCA. Under the base scenario, recycling credits were obtained for the categories of terrestrial toxicity, human non-carcinogenic toxicity, and mineral resource scarcity. Citric acid use was the main contributor to overall impacts in 13 out of 18 impact categories. The analysis of the best-case scenario, which simulated possible improvements during scale-up, resulted in reduced impacts for every impact category as compared to the base scenario. Citric acid reuse was essential for impact mitigation. The improved recycling process (best-case) of 1 battery pack (3.8 kg, 148.5 Wh) led to credits in the categories of mineral resource scarcity (−0.278 ± 0.0105 kg Cu eq), human non-carcinogenic toxicity (−34.3 ± 1.9 kg 1,4-DCB eq), marine ecotoxicity (−3.05 ± 0.204 kg 1,4-DCB eq), freshwater ecotoxicity (−2.46 ± 0.162 kg 1,4-DCB eq), terrestrial ecotoxicity (−178 ± 8.69 kg 1,4-DCB eq), and freshwater eutrophication (−0.00095 ± 0.000154 kg P eq). A preliminary economic evaluation resulted in revenues of €298.59 ± 12.93 and material and energy costs of €97.42 ± 1.95 per battery pack. Anode recovery was profitable
Demolition and construction recycling unified management: the DECORUM platform for improvement of resource efficiency in the construction sector
No full textThe construction and public work sectors are faced with a series of challenges that will need to be addressed in moving towards an effective circular economy model. The aim of this work was to develop a simple but holistic approach to the management of construction projects in order to ensure compliance with technical standards and environmental criteria right from the set-up phase and to foster an increased use of recycled materials and saving of natural resources. To achieve this goal, a multi-user platform was designed and developed to manage and control all stages and procedures of public work and provide support to all those involved throughout the various stages of implementation. The platform included (1) technical standards; (2) environmental law; (3) databases; (4) technical specifications for public tenders; (5) a tool to assess environmental impacts and circularity; (6) a marketplace to facilitate and transparently manage trading of natural, artificial, and recycled aggregates; (7) interactive catalogues with declarations of building products; and (8) interactive maps for the geolocation of treatment plants, producers, and construction sites. The platform, currently undergoing validation by public administrations, will represent a valuable tool for use in enabling public work contractors to reduce environmental impacts, promote an informed and transparent use of recycled products, and to encourage a more sustainable use of natural resources. The platform will facilitate the application of green public procurement (GPP) which, although mandatory in several countries (e.g., in Italy), continues to encounter a series of problems in implementation. The platform will also enhance compliance with technical standards and minimum environmental criteria (MEC), as recently defined for buildings and road construction and maintenance, thus expanding the market for artificial and recycled aggregates with certified products and guaranteed quality
Project green symbiosis 2014 - II phase: results from an industrial symbiosis pilot project in Emilia Romagna region (Italy)
No full textThe Project “Green - Industrial Symbiosis” (G-IS), in Emilia Romagna region (IT), took place in two phases: phase I, 05.2013 – 03.2014; phase II, 10. 2014 – 10.2015. During the first phase, it was completed the first part of the pilot project of industrial symbiosis (IS) in Emilia-Romagna, which involved 13 companies in the agro-industrial sector, 7 laboratories of the High Technology Network, with Unioncamere and Aster (promoters) and ENEA (technical and scientific coordinator). The first phase generated 90 potential synergies among the 10 companies that shared their input-output resources. During the second phase, promoted by ASTER and organized with the technical and scientific coordination of ENEA, some of the most interesting synergies of the first phase were selected, in order to go from the identification of potential synergies to its actual implementation. In particular, 3 pathways of industrial symbiosis were chosen, in which waste food industry outputs were destined to three different types of exploitation (production of biopolymers, nutraceuticals, energy recovery). The pathway that a resource must take to shift from being a company's output to another company’s input, involves several steps that require compliance and verification of regulatory, technical, logistical and economic issues. All these factors have been examined and reported in 3 Operative Manuals for the companies involved, each one arranged for a different symbiosis’ pathway. The manuals consist of two sections: an operative and a documental part (technical dossier). The operative part describes the transformation path of resources, with a layout in which each block and intermediate vector represent a passage of the resource (e.g. exit from the producing company, transport, valorisation). Under the layout, a synthesis table refers, for each stage, to the necessary requirements, reported in full in the technical dossier. Links on the synthesis table refer, for example, to laws or techniques that the specific flow, in each step, must comply with. These links also define, with a predefined color, if that aspect can be considered as an obstacle to the progress of the symbiosis
Sharing economy and circular economy. How technology and collaborative consumption innovations boost closing the loop strategies
No full textSharing economy business experiences are rapidly rising worldwide and deeply changing structures and models of customers purchasing attitudes and needs. Inspired by principles of sustainable consumption, its starting point is the idea that every underutilized resource is a wasted resource. Beyond the digital services implemented by sharing platform, there are also social and physical places where communities are experimenting the potential of collaborative and innovative solutions: purchasing groups, time banking, social street, co-working spaces. Goods and services access promoted by sharing business models are emerging in the place of older model based on private propriety and a consumerist view of society. This is strongly connected with circular economy strategies, particularly referred to waste prevention, reduction and resources valorisation European goals. This paper gives an overview of sharing economy including drivers and barriers which can affect its effective expansion. Moreover, collaborative models in the most strategic and critical sectors (such as mobility, agro-food, buildings and goods production and consumption) by a resources perspective, will be analysed to show how sharing economy can contribute to circular economy. At this end, this paper explores the circularity approach and in particular it identifies the role of sharing economy in products and services from a life cycle thinking (LCT) approach. The focus will be the benefits ofthe sharing economy models considering mainly two aspects; a) the length of the product’s use phase (lifetime) and b) the intensity of use. A review of available data considering the most strategic sectors in terms of environmental impacts, will also be presented from a sharing economy point of view. © 2017, Gh. Asachi Technical University of Iasi. All rights reserved
The experience of the first industrial symbiosis platform in Italy
No full textThis paper reports the activity, promoted by the Italian agency for new technologies, energy and sustainable economic development (ENEA), in the framework of the project for the development and implementation of the first Italian Platform for Industrial Symbiosis implemented in Sicily (2011-2015). The goals of the project were: to provide a methodology and an instrument for industrial symbiosis implementation at regional scale, to implement a IS Platform as a support to SMEs to individuate symbiosis opportunities in the region. The whole approach includes: network activation, platform architecture design and implementation, analysis of the productive sector in Sicily, data collection and companies involvement. In particular the paper focuses on the activities developed for companies’ network creation trough a preliminary analysis of the predominant productive sectors followed by the organization of operative meetings in Sicily for companies’ involvement, analysis of potential synergies and resources sharing, and finally platform population. During the first two meetings more than 80 SME were linked giving rise to almost 400 output resources and almost 180 input resources. More than 690 potential matches were found between the participating enterprises showing interesting opportunities both for substituting resources with waste products in real and virtual cases and for sharing waste management services and infrastructures. The discussion occurred during the meeting has remarked the significance and the consequences of the regulatory and control system on IS application, underlining the necessary participation of local stakeholders and control authorities. It has also emerged the need to identify predominant productive activities in well-defined territorial contexts where to investigate the specific/local tangles taking into account legislative and technical-economic feasibility. Technical dossiers on three main resource streams (wastes from processing stone materials; plastics and agro-industrial wastes), which may generate the more interesting potential synergies, are being processed. These dossiers include European, Italian and regional regulations, guidelines, technical standards, logistic and economical aspects useful for supporting companies in synergies implementation. Results of this activity will also be used to improve the algorithm in the platform to find synergies. © 2015, Gh. Asachi Technical University of Iasi. All rights reserved
Environmental, social, and economic implications of critical raw materials’ extraction from residues
No full textWoodchips from Forest Residues as a Sustainable and Circular Biofuel for Electricity Production: Evidence from an Environmental Life Cycle Assessment
Full text linkEnergy production from biomass represents a strategic solution for the achievement of global sustainability goals. In addition, the use of biofuels offers both significant environmental advantages and several socio-economic benefits. In this study, the environmental life cycle impacts associated with the use of woodchips from forest residues for combined heat and power generation in Italy were analyzed. Moreover, the use of woodchips was compared to the use of conventional fossil fuels in similar applications, and different biomass supply scenarios were evaluated to understand their effect on the overall impact related to 1 kWh of electricity. The impacts on “Climate Change” (2.94 × 10−2 kgCO2eq/kWh) and “Resources” (4.28 × 10−1 MJ primary) were revealed to be minimal compared to fossil fuels (reduction of about 95–97%) and forest woodchips emerged as a sustainable alternative for electricity generation. Moreover, impacts regarding “Human health” (3.04 × 10−7 DALY) and “Ecosystem quality” (3.58 × 10−1 PDF·m2·yr) were revealed to be relevant and identified as a research area to be further explored. The findings of this study also highlighted the key role played by the supply mode/distance of the woodchips on the overall life cycle impacts, with the use of “local” biomass representing the best reduction option. Lastly, another aspect to be further investigated is the optimization of the biomass supply
A simplified methodology for estimating the Carbon Footprint of heat generation by forest woodchips as a support tool for sustainability assessment in decision-making
Full text linkEnergy production from biomass is very strategic for the achievement of global sustainability goals and the use of biofuels for decentralized energy production in medium-small size plants, which conforms to global fossil energy and GHG reduction targets, is expected to increase in the short-medium term. This paper proposes a simplified methodology for estimating the Carbon Footprint associated with heat generation by forest woodchips. The methodology includes all the relevant life cycle phases and is based on the specific fuel and plant characteristics, so it can effectively support sustainability assessment in decision-making regarding biomass projects through proper Carbon Footprint estimates. The application of the methodology showed results in the range of about 6–12 gCO2eq/MJ, depending on the case study characteristics, that agree with the impact values range observed from previous literature. The basic idea that the use of forest woodchips is particularly strategic for sustainable energy production within a “local” wood-energy supply chain (short transport distance) was confirmed. Furthermore, the methodology allowed to estimate indicative transportation distances for which forest woodchips can be considered environmentally competitive compared to alternative renewable sources such as, for instance, wood pellets
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