1,721,013 research outputs found
Die Ökobilanz der energetischen Holzverwertung: Faktoren für einen hohen ökologischen Nutzen
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The environmental benefits of improving packaging waste collection in Europe
Get PDFCollecting more waste via source separation waste collection systems is an essential part of increasing resource efficiency, achieving European recycling targets and closing the loop in a circular economy. Huge variation in the capture rates of packaging waste (paper, plastic, metal, composite material and glass) exists in Europe, even between municipalities with similar characteristics, which suggests there is great potential to increase the amount of these materials that can be recovered. In order to assess the environmental impacts linked to higher collection rates, a Life Cycle Assessment model was built that considers the reduced need for virgin materials as the system’s loops are closed. An extra 18 million tonnes of waste could be collected annually in Europe if best practice collection strategies were to be deployed, leading to a 13% reduction in greenhouse gas production associated with the packaging and packaging waste. Although high collection performance is crucial for efficient resource use, improving source separation waste collection systems alone will not be enough to achieve recycling targets; material losses must be reduced throughout the value chain, i.e. at the sorting and recycling stages. By evaluating the circularity and environmental implications of current waste management, it can be shown at which points in the system the most improvement needs to be made for each material in order to facilitate the transition towards a circular economy.Industrial Ecolog
Making the use of scenarios in LCA easier: the superstructure approach
Get PDFPurpose Much progress has recently been made in modelling future background systems for LCA by including future scenario data, e.g. from Integrated Assessment Models (IAMs), into life cycle inventory (LCI) databases. A key problem is, however, that this yields potentially dozens of scenario LCI databases (i.e. LCI databases that represent different scenarios and reference years), instead of a single background database, which is very impractical for LCA modelling purposes. This paper proposes an approach to overcome this problem. Methods The approach consists of transforming all scenario LCI databases into a single superstructure database and an associated scenario difference file. The superstructure database is also a regular LCI database, but is constructed to contain all unique exchanges (elementary and intermediate flows) and processes that exist across all scenario LCI databases. The scenario difference file stores the differences between all scenarios and can be used to turn the superstructure into a specific scenario LCI database. This is very fast as it can be done in memory during LCA calculations. Results and discussion A key advantage of the superstructure approach is that a single LCI database can be used to represent different background systems. Therefore, the practitioner does not need to re-link a foreground system to multiple LCI databases, which is work-intensive and invites modelling errors. LCA results for all scenarios and reference years can be calculated automatically. We also illustrate how the superstructure approach has been implemented in the Activity Browser open source LCA software. Although this paper introduces the superstructure approach for background scenarios, it can also be used to model foreground scenarios, and even, as implemented in the Activity Browser, combinations of background and foreground scenarios. Finally, we briefly discuss further challenges that need to be addressed for a more widespread use of background scenarios in LCA. Conclusions The superstructure approach presents a practical solution for making the use of future background scenarios more wide-spread and, therefore, to overcome the problem of performing prospective LCA with temporally inconsistent foreground and background systems. The implementation in the Activity Browser makes the approach available for anyone and may serve as inspiration for other LCA software to implement the superstructure approach or a similar concept. While this may be an important technical milestone, additional coordination between data providers, scenario generators, LCA practitioners, and software developers will be required to further facilitate the use of background scenarios in prospective LCA studies.Industrial Ecolog
Eco-design tools within product development processes of automotive companies and lessons learned from their experience: BMW, Volkswagen and Volvo: a comparative study
No full textOver the past years, the scientific community has payed increasing attention to the integration of Eco-design in product development processes. In spite of this, Eco-design practices within mainstream manufacturing companies has proven to be scarce. A great share of the literature has focused on the development and improvement of Eco-design tools from a theoretical perspective. A more practical perspective, including companies’ point of view, allow us to identify bottlenecks or improvement potential only visible for practitioners, such as the compatibility of tools with companies’ current procedures, time and data constraints, or guidance provided by output mechanisms. This thesis reviews a set of Eco-design tools adopted or developed by three automotive companies (BMW AG, VW AG and AB Volvo) with decades of experience in Eco-design. The extensive literature review aims at combining and integrating the observed best practices into a model that offers guidance on how to incorporate Eco-design into product development processes of less experienced companies. The model presents an iterative process comprised of three phases: impact assessment, definition of action, and management and control. The impact assessment phase consists of the analysis of hotspots and the comparison of design alternatives. The results from the impact assessment then lead to the definition of improvement actions. Actions that are agreed through team dialogues among different departments of the company which are selected according to a prioritization process to find the right balance between aspects, such as costs, product functionality, customer preference, current and future policy compliance or corporative image. Once impact results are translated into technical targets, the management and control phase ensures that employees are designated to supervise the implementation of actions, report possible rebound effects and inform about the findings that become the knowledge foundation of future projects. The automotive experience also reveals that LCA represents the cornerstone of the three companies in the integration of Eco-design practices, but it is noteworthy that LCA approaches are recognized to be dependent on other indispensable tools. From the observed experience, the LCA studies are conducted in a form that are too dependent on the product system of preceding versions of the product, which often limits radical innovation and rather results in small incremental improvement. In combination with LCA, systematic team dialogues between different knowledge fields shall contribute to the creation of collective knowledge. An appropriate arena that allows experts to reflect on impact results and explore innovative improvement opportunities, out of the scope of LCA practitioners.Industrial Ecolog
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
Variations on the Author
Get PDF“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Get PDFWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Ex-ante life cycle assessment of polyols using carbon captured from industrial process gas
Get PDFHorizon 2020(H2020)768919Industrial Ecolog
Air traffic growth jeopardises European aviation’s climate mitigation efforts despite the substantial potential of hydrogen
Get PDFThe European Union recently adopted ReFuelEU Aviation as a regulation to stimulate the use of alternative aviation fuels. We explore how this affects the climate impact of European aviation and its alignment with notions of successful climate change mitigation. Using stock-and-flow modelling and lifecycle assessment, we analyse the role of hydrogen in decarbonising the aviation system. We find that the adoption of alternative fuels alone does not guarantee successful mitigation, since the resulting temperature change can vary widely (2.2-8.9 millikelvin estimated by 2070) and most scenarios exceed CO2-based targets. Although alternative fuels can greatly reduce CO2 emissions and non-CO2 impacts—with hydrogen-powered aircraft yielding the largest reductions—persistent air traffic growth drives the near-term use of fossil resources and the long-term scale of non-CO2 effects. Therefore, we recommend reassessing aviation climate targets, including the consideration of non-CO2 effects in budget-based targets and stronger incentives to reduce near-term fossil kerosene use.Horizon 2020(H2020)101138475Industrial Ecolog
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