1,720,986 research outputs found
Use and consumption of plastics in industrial processes. New model for the strategic management of environmental impacts.
No full textI materiali plastici sono onnipresenti nel settore produttivo e nella vita quotidiana, inoltre le più recenti stime prevedono una significativa crescita della domanda nei prossimi anni. Anche a causa dei grandi volumi di produzione (e quindi di rifiuti generati), al ciclo di vita dei materiali plastici sono associati gravi problemi ambientali. Negli ultimi trent’anni sono state numerose le prese di posizione istituzionali volte a limitare gli impatti ambientali associati al settore. In risposta il comparto produttivo ha indagato e intrapreso azioni per efficientare l’utilizzo delle plastiche oppure per valutare materiali o feedstock alternativi. Questa transizione, se non supportata da robuste valutazioni sull’effettiva sostenibilità ambientale delle alternative, rischia di portare ad effetti opposti a quelli desiderati. Per questa ragione anche le più recenti direttive e strategie europee riconoscono il ruolo chiave delle metriche e dei tool di sostenibilità ambientale. Tra questi, l’analisi del ciclo di vita (LCA) è di gran lunga lo strumento più utilizzato e riconosciuto. L’applicazione dell’LCA mostra però delle criticità che rischiano di minare la sua capacità come strumento a supporto del processo decisionale, in primis la soggettività di alcune scelte metodologiche. Alla luce di questo contesto, l’obiettivo della presente ricerca è di sviluppare un nuovo framework integrato con la struttura del LCA (così come descritta dallo standard ISO 14044) in grado di supportare il processo decisionale in condizioni di incertezza metodologica. Per sviluppare la proposta metodologica è stata condotta un’analisi degli studi LCA comparativi relativi ai materiali plastici e alle principali alternative, che ha permesso di dettagliare gli aspetti più critici della definizione del campo di applicazione e nella fase di interpretazione dei risultati. Sono stati quindi definiti i requisiti del nuovo framework metodologico, che è stato testato in tre casi studi. I casi studio sono stati selezionati in modo tale da coprire i due settori a più alta domanda di plastiche (imballaggi e materiali da costruzione) e le principali tipologie di materiale (plastiche vergini, riciclate, fossili e bio-based, nonché materiali cellulosici). Il framework si è dimostrato efficace ed in grado di supportare il processo decisionale. Le principali prospettive di ricerche future riguardano la generalizzazione del framework ad altri settori e produttivi ed altri ambiti di valutazione, come l’integrazione in studi LCA ex-ante.Plastic materials are ubiquitous in the production system and everyday life, and recent estimates predict a significant growth in demand in the coming years. Due to the large production volumes (and consequently generated waste), significant environmental impacts are associated with the life cycle of plastic materials. In the last thirty years, several institutional positions have been taken to limit the environmental impacts associated with the sector. In response, the industrial sector has investigated and taken actions to optimize the use of plastics and to evaluate alternative materials or feedstocks. However, this transition, if not supported by robust assessments of the actual environmental sustainability of alternatives, risks having opposite effects to those desired. For this reason, even the most recent European directives and strategies recognize the key role of environmental sustainability metrics and tools. Among these, Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is by far the most widely used and recognized tool. However, the application of LCA shows some critical issues that may undermine its ability as a decision-making support tool, primarily the subjectivity of some methodological choices.
In this context, the aim of this research is to develop a new framework integrated with the structure of LCA (as described by the ISO 14044 standard) that can support the decision-making process under conditions of methodological uncertainty. To develop this new methodological framework, comparative LCA studies on plastic materials and their main alternatives were reviewed, identifying the most critical aspects in the scope definition and results interpretation. Based on the outcomes of the literature review, the characteristics of the new framework were defined and subsequently tested in three case studies. The case studies were selected to cover the two sectors with the highest demand for plastics (packaging and construction materials) and the main categories of material (virgin, recycled, fossil-based, bio-based plastics, and paper-based materials). The framework proved to be effective and able to support the decision-making process. The main perspectives for future research concern the generalization of the framework to other sectors and other LCA approaches, such as integration into ex-ante LCA studies
Life cycle assessment-based decision making under methodological uncertainty: A framework proposal
Get PDFThe inherent multi-criteria nature of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), tailored to unearth trade-offs amidst environmental aspects, presents a challenge in directly aiding decision-makers when comparings products. These difficulties are due to both the multi-criteria nature of the instrument and the multiple forms of uncertainty that affect the results. This article aims to present a new framework, integrated with the ISO 14040 and ISO 14044 standards, designed to support LCA-based decision-making under methodological uncertainties. The framework encompasses three innovative phases within the LCA structure: a systematic mapping of sector-specific methodological choices, an in-depth analysis delving into the spectrum of conclusion variability, and the adoption of a weighting system for methodological combinations capable of managing divergent outcomes. This innovative framework was successfully applied in a real-world case study in the packaging sector
Virtualization of Production Processes: An Innovative Approach for the Life Cycle Inventory and Dynamic Life Cycle Assessment
No full textIl recupero dei rifiuti tessili per la circular economy
No full textLa domanda globale di prodotti tessili è in costante aumento (The Fiber Year Consulting, 2015; Oerlikon, 2010), una tendenza che probabilmente continuerà. Nel frattempo, l’industria tessile sta affrontando enormi sfide ambientali e di risorse
Life Cycle Assessment of Pvc-a Polymer Alloy Pipes for the Impacts Reduction in the Construction Sector
Get PDFThe plastics and construction sectors are at the heart of European policies for the circular economy. Polyvinylchloride (PVC) is the most used polymer in construction products and one of the major applications is piping systems for water distribution. The PVC-A polymer alloy is made blending PVC with chlorinated polyethylene and it is characterized by improved physical properties that allow a reduction in pipe’s thickness. These characteristics enable a reduction in the consumption of resources, but a comprehensive analysis of environmental performance is needed to identify any trade-offs. The aim of this work is to apply Life Cycle Assessment to evaluate two PVC-A piping systems with different gaskets. The study was conducted according to the EN 15804 standard and primary data from an industrial-scale production process were used. An extensive comparison with the main alternatives on the market (PVC-U, PVC-O, PVC-M, and PE) is reported, both referred to 1 kg and 1 meter of pipe
Combining organizational and product life cycle perspective to explore the environmental benefits of steel slag recovery practices
Get PDF: Sustainability in steel production is considered a global challenge which needs to be faced with coordinated actions. The aim of this study is to assess the environmental improvements of a steel mill in a circular economy perspective, through the Organizational Life Cycle Assessment (O-LCA) and the Product Life Cycle Assessment (P-LCA) methodologies. This study explores to what extent the improvements and the efforts to recover the steel slag can be detected using an organization perspective and making a comparison with the more traditional product perspective. The results obtained show that the case in which the steel slag is recovered has lower impacts than the case in which it is landfilled through both O-LCA and P-LCA applications and that the percentage variations are similar for 8 categories out of 10 demonstrating that for our case study, O-LCA and P-LCA can detect the efforts to recover slag similarly. Two categories, namely ADP-minerals&metals and EP-freshwater, are affected by the greater amount of metal and mineral raw materials needed if the slag is not treated and by the steel slag landfill disposal more significantly. What the results tell us is that the variations obtained for this study in the P-LCA application are greater than those obtained in O-LCA application, due to two methodological aspects, namely the application of allocation procedures and the choice of the system boundaries. Finally, it emerges that O-LCA methodology can detect environmental improvements of circularity practices, but the reduction of the impacts is less clear than P-LCA application. What is transferable is that O-LCA and P-LCA methodologies are not interchangeable to quantify the environmental benefits and address the efforts to improve a process in terms of circularity
A life cycle assessment approach for nitrogen footprint quantification: the reactive nitrogen indicator
Get PDF: Among the environmental issues that have recently catalyzed the attention of the scientific world, we must undoubtedly include the perturbation in the biogeochemical flows of nitrogen and phosphorus, which have been identified as one of the major risks on a global scale, also considering its social implications, since the use of macronutrients is essential to guarantee the food needs of the world population. In this context, there is a growing interest in the evaluation of the environmental impact related to this issue, particularly with regard to the effects of changes in the nitrogen cycle and the methods for quantifying them. In the latter field, several researches have recently been developed focusing on the indicator known as the nitrogen footprint, associated with the environmental releases of reactive nitrogen. This study proposes an innovative method to quantify the reactive nitrogen emissions of a product system through the reactive nitrogen indicator; the method is designed using as a reference the requirements of the international standards ISO 14040 and ISO 14044, in order to be aligned with the operating procedures of the life cycle assessment technique, thus differing from the previous approaches to calculate the nitrogen footprint. As part of the study, the proposed method is applied to calculate the reactive nitrogen emissions of a set of agricultural and livestock supply chain products, using secondary inventory data from an internationally recognized database. A validation of the method was also carried out by comparing references in the literature regarding the nitrogen footprint accounting for the same products, generally obtaining a good level of agreement. The proposed method, due to its reproducibility, ease of application and completeness, can therefore be usefully applied to any product system for the calculation of reactive nitrogen emissions, thanks to an innovative approach that meets the requirements of life cycle assessment
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
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