76 research outputs found
The environmental sustainability of biogas production with small sized plant
No full textIn the century of the continuous evolution towards new technologies the renewable energy sector play a fundamental role in this direction. Use of these technologies in the small sized farm could help not only the production process but also the economic income of the farm. This paper underlines the availability of three different technologies adaptable to biogas plants for small sized farm. In this study three different technologies have been analyzed in order to present the environmental and economic benefits of these. Based on the use of a bagtank as digester (BT technology), the first technologies is compared with the use of a concrete structure with a storage balloon cover (BC technology), and with the use of a concrete structure as a concrete cover slab (CS technology). Through a streamlined comparative life cycle assessment, the characteristics of the three technologies as far as their environmental performance are analyzed, in order identify the most suitable for small sized biogas plants. © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd
New design concept of a downhill mountain bike frame made of a natural composite material
No full textIn this work, the design of a new downhill mountain bike frame, made with an innovative natural composite, is presented.
The study is based on an early finite element analysis of the characteristics and performance of a standard frame made
of aluminum, allowing to define the loading conditions and to provide a design optimization of the frame in different race
situations. The model was later implemented with the properties of a natural reinforced composite. The results obtained
show that the new composite allows a weight reduction with a stiffness and a safety coefficient comparable to the standard
aluminum frame
Demonstrating the benefits of using waste CO2 and wastewater for microalgal biodiesel production through LCA assessment
No full textValutazione ambientale del ciclo di vita di soluzioni alternativeper la gestione delle attrezzature mediche dismesse:il caso di una sedia a rotelle leggera
No full textD-Tagatose Feeding Reduces the Risk of Sugar-Induced Exacerbation of Myocardial I/R Injury When Compared to Its Isomer Fructose
No full textIt is known that fructose may contribute to myocardial vulnerability to ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury. D-tagatose is a fructose isomer with less caloric value and used as low-calorie sweetener. Here we compared the metabolic impact of fructose or D-tagatose enriched diets on potential exacerbation of myocardial I/R injury. Wistar rats were randomizedly allocated in the experimental groups and fed with one of the following diets: control (CTRL), 30% fructose-enriched (FRU 30%) or 30% D-tagatose-enriched (TAG 30%). After 24 weeks of dietary manipulation, rats underwent myocardial injury caused by 30 min ligature of the left anterior descending (LAD) coronary artery followed by 24 h′ reperfusion. Fructose consumption resulted in body weight increase (49%) as well as altered glucose, insulin and lipid profiles. These effects were associated with increased I/R-induced myocardial damage, oxidative stress (36.5%) and inflammation marker expression. TAG 30%-fed rats showed lower oxidative stress (21%) and inflammation in comparison with FRU-fed rats. Besides, TAG diet significantly reduced plasmatic inflammatory cytokines and GDF8 expression (50%), while increased myocardial endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) expression (59%). Overall, we demonstrated that D-tagatose represents an interesting sugar alternative when compared to its isomer fructose with reduced deleterious impact not only on the metabolic profile but also on the related heart susceptibility to I/R injury. © Copyright © 2021 Durante, Sgambellone, Lucarini, Failli, Laurino, Collotta, Provensi, Masini and Collino
REUSE OF DISCARDED MEDICAL EQUIPMENT AS A KEY FOR HEALTH CARE SUSTAINABILITY: A LCA PERSPECTIVE
No full textIn 2012 in the European Union there were 11,000 hospitals and 68,000 medical institutions (including long-term care facilities, clinics, specialized clinics, laboratories, etc.), with about 3,000,000 beds for acute illnesses.
The supply of healthcare services is highly dependent on the use of medical equipment, whose employ is continuously increasing. Moreover, the use phase of the life cycle of medical equipment is very short. In fact, the adoption of new standards, the need to improve safety and functionality of the equipment and also marketing purposes contribute to a continuous renew of the medical equipment: It is estimated that in European hospitals a medical equipment is averagely used only for 5 years. This brings to an increasing amount of medical equipment disposed.
Once disposed, most of the medical equipment become a WEEE, i.e. a Waste of Electrical and Electronic Equipment, which represents both a serious risks for the environment, primarily due to their content of hazardous materials, and at the same time, if properly managed, a valuable resource, .
Considering healthcare institutions, scientific literature highlight that not enough attention is payed to medical WEEE, which are often neglected, stored in basements or in unused premises or donated to charity organization for their shipment in poor Countries without any warranty on their real destiny. Therefore, it is very important to promote a proper management of medical WEEE within healthcare institution.
In this work, a comparative life cycle assessment is performed to assess the environmental implications of different realistic solutions for the end of life medical equipment.
This work is part of the Life-MED project (LIFE13 ENV/IT/000620), funded by the European Union through the Life financial instrument
Comparative LCA of Three Alternative Technologies for Lipid Extraction in Biodiesel from Microalgae Production
No full textBiodiesel from microalgae is regarded as a green and renewable energy source; it is produced from non-food feedstock material, has a high quantity of free fatty acids per unit weight of dry matter, may be cultivated with relatively low land use requirements, and may be adapted to regions with growing economies. Nevertheless, microalgal-based biodiesel production systems are still far from being exploitable on a commercial level due to high energy and resource requirements associated with the lipid extraction processes. Microalgae growth requires significant quantities of water, and the extraction of lipids involves the use of solvents, typically polar/non-polar co-solvent systems. Together, these factors affect the overall efficiency of the conversion process and, thus, the overall environmental and economic footprint, as measured through a life cycle assessment approach. One proposed option to improve the overall efficiency of the process is to substitute the traditional chloroform/methanol-based extraction process with a greener and more novel type of lipid extraction technology such as CO2 expanded methanol, using a flow-through reactor (CXM). Through the development of an LCA model the current study aims to compare biodiesel production respectively using a conventional organic co-solvent-based extraction system (CHCl3 - MeOH), a non-expanded methanol in a flow-through reactor (NCXM), and the proposed CXM approach. The comparison, based on three different LCA models, will provide an insight of the effects of the different energy performances of both CXM and NCXM lipid extractions respect to the conventional approach in terms of environmental impacts associated with one unit of biodiesel production. In the long term, the results will be used to identify the environmental 'hot-spots' associated with each process, and to explore the potential for improving novel CXM processes. © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd
The Environmental and Economic Benefits of Industrial Symbiosis Between a Cement Manufacturing Plant and The Produciton of Biofuel from a Microalgal Processing Facility
No full textThe aim of this research is to assess the potential environmental impact and economic viability for the production of biodiesel from microalgae using flue gas CO2 from cement manufacturing plants and municipal wastewater as a source of water and nutrients. A theoretical Canadian case study examining the industrial symbiosis between the cement plant, wastewater treatment plant and the production of a biofuel from a co-located microalgal processing facility will be reported. The analysis will be carried out through a comparative life cycle assessment (LCA) which will highlight the strengths and weaknesses of each technique in the biodiesel production process. A positive environmental impact arising from the use of cement production by-products or waste, such as flue gas CO2 and waste heat for the biofuel production process have been reported. Moreover, adopting wastewater as nutrients in the microalgae cultivation are clearly critical positive benefits in the life cycle analysis. These impacts must be evaluated in combination based on operational values from realistic test case scenarios to enable informed decisions to be made in the selection of operational conditions and predicting realistic production, and treatment, performances, which can ultimately lead to the development of techno-economically viable approaches
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