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1
Davidsson, Simon. "Life Cycle Exergy Analysis of Wind Energy Systems : Assessing and improving life cycle analysis methodology." Thesis, Uppsala universitet, Globala energisystem, 2011. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-157185.
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Wind power capacity is currently growing fast around the world. At the same time different forms of life cycle analysis are becoming common for measuring the environmental impact of wind energy systems. This thesis identifies several problems with current methods for assessing the environmental impact of wind energy and suggests improvements that will make these assessments more robust. The use of the exergy concept combined with life cycle analysis has been proposed by several researchers over the years. One method that has been described theoretically is life cycle exergy analysis (LCEA). In this thesis, the method of LCEA is evaluated and further developed from earlier theoretical definitions. Both benefits and drawbacks with using exergy based life cycle analysis are found. For some applications the use of exergy can solve many of the issues with current life cycle analysis methods, while other problems still remain. The method of life cycle exergy analysis is used to evaluate the sustainability of an existing wind turbine. The wind turbine assessed appears to be sustainable in the way that it gives back many times more exergy than it uses during the life cycle.
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BAHLAWAN, Hilal. "Optimization of hybrid energy plants by accounting for life cycle energy demand." Doctoral thesis, Università degli studi di Ferrara, 2019. http://hdl.handle.net/11392/2478783.
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Un impianto energetico ibrido consiste in una combinazione di diversi sistemi energetici alimentati da diversi fonti energetiche, i quali quando vengono integrati, consistono di superare i limiti dei singoli sistemi. Diversi sistemi energetici possono essere integrati in un unico impianto ibrido a seconda della disponibilità delle diverse fonti energetiche. Diversi studi presenti in letteratura affermano che gli impianti energetici ibridi hanno la potenzialità di fornire energia con migliore qualità ed affidabilità rispetto ad un sistema alimentato da una singola fonte energetica.
I benefici energetici ed ambientali degli impianti energetici ibridi destinati ad uso civile sono legati al dimensionamento e controllo di questi sistemi. In altre parole, i fattori fondamentali per un risparmio di energia e per la riduzione delle emissioni sono il dimensionamento ed il controllo ottimizzati dei vari sistemi che compongo l’impianto energetico ibrido. Inoltre, l’ottimizzazione di un impianto energetico ibrido deve basarsi sulla corrispondenza tra l’energia prodotta dai vari sistemi e la richiesta energetica dell’edificio.
L’ottimizzazione degli impianti energetici ibridi viene solitamente condotta considerando gli impatti ambientali durante la vita utile. Tuttavia, questo approccio, che tiene conto solo dell’impatto ambientale, del costo o del consumo di energia primaria legato al funzionamento dell’impianto, può far sì che gli impatti ambientali legati alle altre fasi del ciclo di vita (i.e. la fase di costruzione e di smaltimento) non vengono presi in considerazione.
Data la complessità legata al numero di variabili coinvolte, il fatto che le fonti di energia disponibili sono molteplici, la scelta dei sistemi di conversione dell’energia e l’integrazione del ciclo di vita in processi di ottimizzazione, la soluzione di tale problema richiede la disponibilità dei metodi e delle linee guida per l’ottimizzazione degli impianti energetici ibridi al fine di ottenere un risultato ottimale in termini di risparmio energetico e di conseguenza riduzione dell’impatto ambientale durante il ciclo di vita dell’impianto.
Perciò, il lavoro di questa tesi di dottorato si concentra sullo sviluppo dei metodi e delle linee guida per l’ottimizzazione di impianti energetici ibridi minimizzando l’energia primaria consumata durante il ciclo di vita dell’impianto.
Questo lavoro presenta un nuovo metodo, basato sulle tecniche di programmazione dinamica, per l’ottimizzazione di impianti energetici ibridi minimizzando il consumo di energia primaria durante il funzionamento. La metodologia sviluppata in questo lavoro estende l’uso del metodo di programmazione dinamica per risolvere dei problemi legati al dimensionamento e controllo ottimizzati di impianti complessi. Questo metodo è veloce, facile da implementare e tiene conto anche della non-linearità dei sistemi ibridi.
Inoltre, questo lavoro affronta la valutazione del ciclo di vita di sistemi alimentati da fonti rinnovabili e non-rinnovabili destinati ad uso residenziale mediante un approccio “cradle-to-gate” applicato ai vari sistemi energetici. Inoltre, si affronta il problema del calcolo dell’inventario dei vari sistemi per diverse taglie e si illustrano i vari coefficienti usati per il calcolo dell’inventario in funzione della taglia. La procedura sviluppata consente di ottenere delle curve di impatto che possono essere usate per l’ottimizzazione dei sistemi energetici.
Infine, viene sviluppata una metodologia per l’integrazione dell’analisi del ciclo di vita nel processo di ottimizzazione di impianti energetici ibridi. La metodologia viene applicata ad un caso studio, che consiste in un impianto energetico ibrido costituito da sistemi alimentati da energia rinnovabile e non-rinnovabile. L’ottimizzazione viene condotta minimizzando il consumo di energia primaria durante la fase di costruzione, trasporto e funzionamento dell’impianto.Hybrid energy plants may be a solution to overcome the limitations of a single source of energy, both based on renewable and non-renewable energy sources. A hybrid energy plant consists in a combination of two or more energy conversion systems which use different energy sources, that, when integrated, overcome the respective limitations. Several energy systems could be integrated in a hybrid energy plant depending on the availability of their primary energy resources. Hybrid energy plants have the potential to provide higher quality and better reliability of energy supply compared to a system based on a single source of energy. The promising energy and environmental benefits of hybrid energy plants for building applications are greatly dependent upon their design and operation strategy. In other words, the key factors for the achievement of an as high as possible primary energy saving and greenhouse gas emission reduction are the correct sizing and operation of the hybrid energy plant. Moreover, the optimization process of a hybrid energy plant must be based on the efficient match between building energy demand and supply. The optimal design of hybrid energy plants is commonly achieved by accounting for their environmental impacts during their useful life. However, this common approach, which only accounts for on-site environmental impacts, costs or primary energy consumption, may lead to burden shifting by ignoring the upstream life cycle of the hybrid energy plant. Given the complexity to deal with the number of variables involved, the multiple sources of energy that can be used, the choice of energy converters, the integration of life cycle assessment in system’s design and operation, procedures ad guidelines are needed for the solution of such complex problem, i.e. the optimization of hybrid energy plants in order to achieve an optimal result in term of primary energy saving and consequently environmental impacts reduction over the life cycle of the plant. For these reasons, the work of this thesis focuses on the development of original methods and procedures for the optimization of hybrid energy plants by accounting for the on-site and off-site energy consumption or environmental impacts calculated throughout the various stages of the life cycle of the energy plant. This work provides a new dynamic programming based optimization method to solve the optimization problem of hybrid energy plants by minimizing the on-site primary consumption. The proposed methodology extends the use of the dynamic programming method and attempts to apply it to solve both the sizing and operating optimization problems. Moreover, the presented method is fast, easy to implement and also addresses the nonlinearity associated with the characteristics of a hybrid energy plant. In addition, this work, investigates the life cycle assessment of renewable and non-renewable energy systems which can be employed for residential applications. For each system a cradle-to-gate life cycle assessment is carried out. The considered impact parameter is the cumulative energy demand. Furthermore, the problem of life cycle inventory scaling is addressed and appropriate scaling factors and their relevance for calculating environmental impacts are presented. The scaling procedure used in this work allows to obtain impact curves which can be used for optimization purposes. Finally, a general procedure for the integration of life cycle assessment into system’s design and optimization is developed. A case study consisting of a hybrid energy plant, which is composed of renewable and non-renewable energy systems, is considered to demonstrate the proposed approach. The optimization is carried out by taking into account the non-linear life cycle inventory scaling of energy systems and is conducted with the aim of minimizing the primary energy consumed during the manufacturing, transportation and operation phases.
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Yossef, Delav, and Dino Hot. "Comparative life cycle assessment of organic building materials." Thesis, Högskolan Dalarna, Institutionen för information och teknik, 2021. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:du-37774.
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The ever-increasing awareness of global warming has made the building industry startlooking for alternative building solutions in order to meet the changing demands. Thesechallenges have given rise to organization which aim to go further and construct moresustainable alternatives in the form of Ecovillages. This thesis is conducted in collaborationwith Bysjöstrans Ekoby and aims to investigate what type of organic alternatives exist andhow they perform in building elements.The study was carried out through a comparative LCA where a base case construction forboth roof and wall was established. Followed by comparing different organic materials toeach other and the base case materials in order to determine low-impact materials. The goalwas to replaces as many layers within the structure such as insulation, structure, roofcladding, façade, wind and vapor barrier.This was later followed by combing the materials together in order to identify whichalternative construction options would perform the best in regard to greenhouse gasemissions (CO2 eq kg) and primary energy use (MJ).The results of the study show that the performance or organic materials vary significantly.Whit a lot of materials being better but also worse than traditional materials. It showed thatfor internal wall and roof surface adding clay plater can reduce the GHG emission with 68%, timber frame with 98 %, façade with 43 %, roof cladding with 93 %, vapor barrier with76 % and insulation with 79 %. The best preforming construction option could reduce thebase case emission with 68 %.
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Hashemi, Farzad Tabassom. "Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) for a DC-microgrid energy system in Fjärås." Thesis, KTH, Hållbar utveckling, miljövetenskap och teknik, 2019. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-263173.
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Application of Photovoltaic PV panels for electricity production has rapidly increased in recent years in Sweden after launching a capital subsidy for PV panel installations in 2009. Kungsbacka municipality’s housing company equipped two groups of buildings in Fjärås with PV systems to generate electricity. The newly built residential buildings are connected to a DC-microgrid, whereas the existing buildings have been equipped with a single PV system. This project conducts a cradle to gate life cycle assessment (LCA) for this DC-microgrid energy system. The main purpose of this project is to determine which parts and processes of the DC-microgrid contribute to highest environmental impact throughout their lifespan from cradle to gate stages. Moreover, this study explores the energy payback time (EPBT) and the cumulative energy demand (CED) for the DC-microgrid. Additionally, this study performs two comparative LCA. First the DC-microgrid is being compared with PV system to determine which system has higher environment impacts, and secondly, the DC-microgrid is being compared with the average electricity mix in Sweden in terms of contribution to environmental impacts. The LCA follows the ISO 14040 framework and the baseline method is applied in order to assess 11 environmental impact categories. Two different functional units are adopted in this study. One is based on installed kilowatt peak (kWp) capacity by which environmental impacts of the PV system are compared with the DC-microgrid system. The other functional unit for this study is 1 kWh of delivered electricity to residential buildings produced by the DC-microgrid system. This functional unit is used exclusively for a stand-alone analysis of the DC-microgrid system in order to make it comparable with other microgrid systems or other systems with different energy sources, such as hydro, wind or nuclear. The results of the stand-alone LCA analysis of the DC-microgrid show that the battery has high contribution in human toxicity and terrestrial ecotoxicity whereas the energy hub system (Ehub) is the main contributor to eutrophication, abiotic depletion, fresh water aquatic ecotoxicity and marineaquatic ecotoxicity. The monocrystalline PV panel has the highest impact on global warming and abiotic depletion (fossil fuel). In addition, the EPBT for the DC-microgrid system is approximately 3.7 years. This means that one can get energy free of cost for an estimated time of 26.5 years if the lifetime of the system is assumed to be 30 years. The CED results show that monocrystalline PV production is an intense energy process which requires more non-renewable energy than all remaining parts of the DC-microgrid. The comparison of the DC-microgrid with the PV system reveals that the DC-microgrid has a higher environmental impact almost in all impact categories. This is mainly due to batteries and inverters which have a clear effect on the result. The CED analysis results illustrate that the multicrystalline PV panel production from the PV system is the most energy demanding process in both categories of renewable and non-renewable energy source. Moreover, the analysis illustrates that the DC-microgrid has still higher environmental impacts in all impact categories compared to the average electricity mix in Sweden. This is due to the electricity production in Sweden relies on hydropower and nuclear power with around 83 % of the total electricity production in the year 2017 which causes a lower environmental burden. Although the DC microgrid system shows a higher environmental impact compared to PV system, it is still a proper option to generate electricity since DC-microgrid system allows to achieve some indirect advantages such as energy saving due to an increase in own usage rate and self-sufficiency rate compared to the PV system. It should be noted that the end-of-life procedures becomes very important especially when crediting back for the recycling of materials. The collection and recycling of the PV panels at their end-of-life should be considered for future work as soon as reliable data are available.Användningen av solpaneler har de senaste åren kommit att öka markant i Sverige. Ökningen beror på det statliga bidraget för installation av solceller som lanserades 2009. Kungsbacka kommun installerade solcellssystem i två olika typer av byggnader, ny och äldre befintlig byggnad. Den nya byggnaden anslöts till direkt mikronät (DC-mikcrogrid) och den äldre byggnaden utrustades med solcellssystem. Detta projekt utför en ’från vaggan till porten’ livscykelanalys (LCA) för energisystemet direkt mikronät. Syftet är i huvudsak att fastställa vilka delar och processer av det direkta mikronätet som bidrar till störst miljöpåverkan genom dess livslängd, det vill säga från vaggan till porten. Vidare undersöker studien återbetalningstiden (Energy PayBack Time, EPBT) och den ackumulerade energianvändningen (Cumulative Energy Demand, CED) för det direkta mikronätet. Studien utför två komparativa LCA varpå det direkta mikronätet först jämförs med solcellssystemet i syfte att fastställa vilket av systemen har större miljöpåverkan. Studien ämnar också jämföra det direkta mikronätet med den genomsnittliga energimixen i Sverige, också avseende miljöpåverkan. LCA metoden följer ISO 14040-ramverket. Studien är baserad på två funktionella enheter vilka består av installerad kilowatt peak (kWp) kapacitet vilken används för att jämföra solcellssystemet och det direkta mikromåttet. Den andra funktionella enheten är 1 kWh levererad elektricitet till bostäder som producerats genom det direkta mikronätet. Denna funktionella enhet används för en ’stand-alone’ analys av det direkta mikronätet i syfte att göra det jämförbart med andra mikrosystem eller system med olika energikällor så som vatten-, vind- och kärnkraft. Resultaten från ‘stand-alone’ livscykelanalysen av det direkta mikronätet visar på att batteriet har en större effekt på mänsklig toxicitet terrestrisk ekotoxicitet, varpå systemet för energihubb bidrar främst till övergödning, abiotisk utarmning, vattenlevande ekotoxicitet och havslevande ekotoxicitet. Monokristallin solpanel har större påverkan på global uppvärmning och övergödning (fossilabränslen). I övrigt är EPBT för det direkta mikronätet cirka 3,7 år vilket innebär att energin beräknas kostnadsfri i cirka 26,5 år, givet att det kan antas att systemets livslängd är 30 år. CED-resultat visar på att microkristallin solpanel är en intensiv energiprocess som kräver mer icke-förnybar energi jämfört med resterande delar av det direkta mikronätet. Jämförelsen mellan det direkta mikronätet och solcellssystemet visar på att det direkta mikronätet har större miljöpåverkan i de flesta kategorier. Detta beror i huvudsak på batterier och växelriktare som har tydlig effekt på resultatet. Av resultatet från CED-analysen framgår att produktion av multikristallin solpanel av solcellssystemet är det mest energikrävande processen i båda kategorierna för förnybar och icke-förnybar energikälla. Vidare framgår av analysen att det direkta mikronätet har en större miljöpåverkan i alla kategorier, jämfört med påverkan från genomsnittet av energimixen i Sverige. Detta beror på att elproduktionen i Sverige mestadels består av vatten- och kärnkraft som tillsammans 2017 utgjorde 83 procent av den totala energiproduktionen. Denna produktion orsakaren mindre miljöbelastning. Trots att det direkta mikronätet påvisar en högre miljöpåverkan än solcellssystemet, är det fortfarande ett alternativ till att generera elektricitet eftersom det direkta mikronätet bidrar till indirekta fördelar såsom energibesparing. Energibesparingen i det direkta mikronnätet sker således genom ökad användning av den egenproducerade energin samt självförsörjning. Det ska vidare tilläggas att ’end-of-life’ procedurerna blir viktiga i synnerhet när de återvunna materialet återanvänds. Vidare bör solpaneler återanvändas vid ’end-of-life’ vilket bör finnas i åtanke för vidarestudier och i samband med att data tillgängliggörs.
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Du, Guangli. "Life cycle assessment of bridges, model development and case studies." Doctoral thesis, KTH, Bro- och stålbyggnad, 2015. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-161196.
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In recent decades, the environmental issues from the construction sector have attracted increasing attention from both the public and authorities. Notably, the bridge construction is responsible for considerable amount of energy and raw material consumptions. However, the current bridges are still mainly designed from the economic, technical, and safety perspective, while considerations of their environmental performance are rarely integrated into the decision making process. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a comprehensive, standardized and internationally recognized approach for quantifying all emissions, resource consumption and related environmental and health impacts linked to a service, asset or product. LCA has the potential to provide reliable environmental profiles of the bridges, and thus help the decision-makers to select the most environmentally optimal designs. However, due to the complexity of the environmental problems and the diversity of bridge structures, robust environmental evaluation of bridges is far from straightforward. The LCA has rarely been studied on bridges till now. The overall aim of this research is to implement LCA on bridge, thus eventually integrate it into the decision-making process to mitigate the environmental burden at an early stage. Specific objectives are to: i) provide up-to-date knowledge to practitioners; ii) identify associated obstacles and clarify key operational issues; iii) establish a holistic framework and develop computational tool for bridge LCA; and iv) explore the feasibility of combining LCA with life cycle cost (LCC). The developed tool (called GreenBridge) enables the simultaneous comparison and analysis of 10 feasible bridges at any detail level, and the framework has been utilized on real cases in Sweden. The studied bridge types include: railway bridge with ballast or fix-slab track, road bridges of steel box-girder composite bridge, steel I-girder composite bridge, post tensioned concrete box-girder bridge, balanced cantilever concrete box-girder bridge, steel-soil composite bridge and concrete slab-frame bridge. The assessments are detailed from cradle to grave phases, covering thousands of types of substances in the output, diverse mid-point environmental indicators, the Cumulative Energy Demand (CED) and monetary value weighting. Some analyses also investigated the impact from on-site construction scenarios, which have been overlooked in the current state-of-the-art. The study identifies the major structural and life-cycle scenario contributors to the selected impact categories, and reveals the effects of varying the monetary weighting system, the steel recycling rate and the material types. The result shows that the environmental performance can be highly influenced by the choice of bridge design. The optimal solution is found to be governed by several variables. The analyses also imply that the selected indicators, structural components and life-cycle scenarios must be clearly specified to be applicable in a transparent procurement. This work may provide important references for evaluating similar bridge cases, and identification of the main sources of environmental burden. The outcome of this research may serve as recommendation for decision-makers to select the most LCA-feasible proposal and minimize environmental burdens.QC 20150311
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Wan, Omar Wan Mohd Sabki. "Analysis of Embodied Energy and Carbon in Malaysian Building Construction Using Hybrid Life Cycle Assessment." Thesis, Griffith University, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/10072/365359.
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Life cycle assessment (LCA) is considered as the most efficient methodology and has been widely accepted by previous researches in the area of energy analysis. Quantifying embodied energy (EE) and carbon (EC) is time-consuming and needs a lot of quantitative effort to ensure reliability of the data to be obtained and analysed. Hybrid-based LCA (hybrid LCA) is utilised - this incorporates input-output based LCA (I-O LCA) that calculate flow of building materials, products, and construction processes in the whole sector of economy and process-based LCA (process LCA) is used to quantify physical quantities of materials, products, or processes. Although hybrid LCA has been identified as improving completeness of EE and EC inventory data, this benefit was not empirically verified extensively, particularly in the Malaysian building construction industry. Therefore, the principal aim of this research was to develop LCEA methodology in order to systematically quantify EE and EC of building construction in Malaysia.Thesis (PhD Doctorate)
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Griffith School of Engineering
Science, Environment, Engineering and Technology
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Östling, Ida. "Life cycle analysis as a tool for CO2 mitigation in the building sector." Thesis, Umeå universitet, Institutionen för tillämpad fysik och elektronik, 2018. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-155572.
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Ximenes, Naves Alex. "Whole Life Sustainability Assessment at the Building Industry and Constructed Assets, through the Whole Life Costing Assessment and Life Cycle Costing Assessment evaluating the economic and financial aspects." Doctoral thesis, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, 2019. http://hdl.handle.net/10803/670202.
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Els edificis d’energia neta poden ser entesos com a edificis, que durant un temps determinat generen tanta energia
com consumeixen. Ja sigui des del punt de vista de l’oferta o el consum, la disponibilitat d’energia està relacionada
amb alguns aspectes bàsics, com ara la font (s), la conversió, la distribució, l’ús, el malbaratament, l’optimització,
l’eficiència i l’autonomia. Aquests temes revelen la complexitat del tema de l'energia i justifiquen l'atenció especial que
li dóna la comunitat acadèmica.
Per obtenir resultats tangibles en l'anàlisi d'aquests sistemes, en el nostre estudi ens centrem en la modelització i
optimització de solucions energètiques aplicades a edificis o sistemes similars. D'altra banda, el període de temps dels
objectes analitzats es va estendre fins al seu període de cicle de vida previst.
Es van establir els objectius principals com: - Verificar i analitzar l’estat de la tecnologia de les energies renovables per
a edificis i actius construïts i l’aplicabilitat de l’anàlisi de costos del cicle de vida a aquests temes; - Configurar models
reproductibles d’edificis i les seves principals càrregues elèctriques, mitjançant eines d’enginyeria de processos
assistits per ordinador, per procedir a simulacions i optimització, considerant-se com a font d’energia primària l’energia
solar; - Quantificar, utilitzant estudis de casos reals i hipotètics, els beneficis de les solucions proposades, amb
l'objectiu de realitzar tota l'avaluació de la sostenibilitat de la vida mitjançant la reducció de tot el cost del cicle de vida;Los edificios de energía de red cero pueden entenderse como edificios, que durante un tiempo dado generan tanta energía como consumen. O bien, desde el punto de vista del suministro o el consumo, la disponibilidad de energía está relacionada con algunos problemas básicos, como las fuentes, la conversión, la distribución, la utilización, el desperdicio, la optimización, la eficiencia y la autonomía. Estos problemas revelan la complejidad del tema de la energía y justifican la atención especial que le presta la comunidad académica. Para obtener resultados tangibles en el análisis de estos sistemas, en nuestro estudio nos centramos en el modelado y la optimización de soluciones energéticas aplicadas a edificios o sistemas similares. Por otro lado, el período de tiempo de los objetos analizados se extendió a su período de ciclo de vida esperado. Los objetivos principales se establecieron como: - Verificar y analizar el estado de la técnica de las soluciones de energía renovable para edificios y activos construidos y la aplicabilidad del análisis de costos de ciclo de vida a estas cuestiones; - Configure modelos reproducibles de edificios y sus principales cargas eléctricas, a través de herramientas de Ingeniería de Procesos Asistidos por Computadora, para proceder a simulaciones y optimización, considerando como fuente de energía primaria la energía solar;
Net-zero energy buildings can be understood as buildings, that for a given time, generate as much energy as they consume. Either, from the point of view of supply or consumption, energy availability is related to some basic issues such as source (s), conversion, distribution, utilization, waste, optimization, efficiency and autonomy. These issues reveal the complexity of the subject of energy and justify the special attention given to it by the academic community. To obtain tangible results in the analysis of these systems, in our study we focus on the modelling and optimization of energy solutions applied to buildings or similar systems. On the other hand, the time frame of the analysed objects was extended to their expected life cycle period. The main objectives were stablished as: - Verify and analyse the state-of-the-art of renewable energy solutions for buildings and constructed assets and the applicability of life cycle costing analysis to these issues; - Configure reproducible models of buildings and their main electrical loads, via Computer Aided Process Engineering tools, to proceed simulations and optimization, considering as primary energy source solar energy; - Quantify, using real-life and hypothetical case studies, the benefits of the proposed solutions, aiming the whole life sustainability assessment through the reduction of the whole life cycle costing; and - Guarantee the reproducibility of the models and main general results of this study and make them public, to contribute with their applicability and further researches.
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Pektas, Deniz. "A comparative Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) study of centralized and decentralized wastewater heat recovery in Stockholm, Sweden." Thesis, KTH, Energiteknik, 2021. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-299856.
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The cities bear a large role in the climate crisis. However, this also means that they have a big potential in the transition towards sustainable communities and a sustainable world. Up to 90 % of energy use within the urban water cycle is allocated to hot water heating for end users. A large portion of the heat that is provided to households in the form of hot water is lost through the drains. According to Schmid (2008), approximately 15 % of thermal energy supplied to conventional new buildings is lost through the sewers, while for new low-energy buildings, this number rises to 30 %. When buildings’ transmission, infiltration, and exfiltration losses decrease because of better building design, the share of losses to the drains can be expected to rise. In order to better utilize the heat still contained in the water that is flushed down the drains, wastewater heat recovery (WWHR) has been implemented and tested in various cities around the world. Wastewater (WW) is a reliable and renewable source of thermal energy with a relatively stable temperature throughout the year. Several techno-economi assessments, and a few lifecycle assessments have been conducted so far. However, no comparative lifecycle assessment of centralized and decentralized WWHR has been found. Bad or insufficient planning of WWHR can lead to competing technologies. Furthermore, uncoordinated decentralized WWHR can lead to the minimum influent temperature requirement of wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) being jeopardized. Therefore, the environmental impact of centralized, and a future scenario with an increased amount of decentralized WWHR in Stockholm has been estimated and compared. This was achieved by systematically analyzing energy consumption, emissions, and natural resource extractions from manufacturing, transportation, operation, internal WWTP processes, biogas consumption, and disposal/recycling by developing a lifecycle assessment (LCA) model both in Excel and SimaPro. Centralized WWHR in Stockholm is compared with the case that 10, 20, …, 90, and 100 % of buildings installing shower wastewater heat exchanger (WWHEX). The decreased WW temperature and consequently the decreased centralized WWHR because of shower WWHR were estimated by calculating the resulting mixed WW temperature at the inlet of the sewer pipes, and adopting a simple model for the WW temperature decrease along the sewer pipes. The results of the lifecycle inventory (LCI), which was developed in Excel, were assigned to affected impact categories with the lifecycle impact assessment (LCIA). The midpoint and endpoint impact analyses of the ReCiPe2016 method showed that the centralized case has the lowest environmental impact per kWh WWHR. More specifically, the impacts of the centralized system were 0.131 kg CO2eq/kWh, 1.27×10-7 DALY/kWh, 3.73×10-10 terrestrial species years/kWh, 80.6 ktons CO2eqs, 1,780 DALYs, and 5.23 terrestrial species years. This can be-3-compared with the results of the 50 % decentralized case with 0.164 kg CO2eq/kWh, 1.59×10-7 DALY/kWh, 4.68×10-10 terrestrial species years/kWh, 82.8 ktons CO2eqs, 1,600 DALYs, and 4.72 terrestrial species years.The 100 % decentralized system had the biggest impact on all categories. The sensitivity of the model was inspected by varying major input parameters.Städerna bär ett stort ansvar i klimatkrisen. Detta innebär också att städernas omställning är en nyckelfaktor för att uppnå hållbara samhällen och en hållbar värld. Upp till 90 % av energianvändningen inom den urbana vattencykeln går till varmvattenuppvärmning för slutanvändare. En stor andel av värmen som förses till hushållen i form av varmvatten går förlorad genom avloppen. Enligt Schmid (2008), går ungefär 15 % av värmeenergin som tillförs konventionella nya byggnader förlorad genom avloppen, medan för nya lågenergibyggnader är motsvarande andel 30 %. När byggnadernas transmission-, infiltration-, och exfiltrationsförluster minskar på grund av förbättrad byggdesign, kan man förvänta att andelen av avloppsvärmeförlusterna kommer att öka. För att bättre ta tillvara denna värme i vattnet som spolas ner i avloppen, har värmeåtervinning från avloppsvatten tillämpats och testats i flera städer runt om i världen. Avloppsvatten är en pålitlig och förnybar form av värmeenergi med en relativt stabil temperatur under hela året. Flera teknisk-ekonomiska bedömningar, och ett fåtal livscykelanalyser har utförts hittills. Däremot har ingen jämförande livscykelanalys av centraliserad och decentraliserad värmeåtervinning från avloppsvatten påträffats. Dålig eller otillräcklig planering av värmeåtervinning från avloppsvatten kan leda till konkurrerande teknik. Dessutom kan okoordinerad decentraliserad vårmeåtervinning från avloppsvatten resultera i att avloppsreningsverkens minimikrav på inkommande avloppsvattentemperatur till reningsverken äventyras. Därför har påverkan på miljön på grund av centraliserad, och ett framtida scenario med en ökande andel av decentraliserad värmeåtervinning från avloppsvatten i Stockholm uppskattats och jämförts. Detta utfördes genom att systematiskt analysera energianvändning, utsläpp, och utvinning av naturresurser från tillverkning, transport, drift, interna avloppsreningsverkprocesser, biogasförbrukning, och bortskaffande/återvinning genom att utveckla en livscykelanaysmodell i både Excel och SimaPro. Centraliserad värmeåtervinning från avloppsvatten i Stockholm jämfördes med decentraliserad värmeåtervinning där 10, 20, …, 90, och 100 % av hushållen installerar avloppsvattenvärmeväxlare för duschar. Den minskade avloppsvattentemperaturen och följaktligen den minskade centrala värmeåtervinningen på grund av vårmeåtervinning från duschar uppskattades genom att beräkna den resulterande blandtemperaturen på avloppsvattnet vid inloppet till avloppsrören, och därefter anta en enkel modell för temperaturminskningen på avloppsvattnet längs avloppsrören. Resultaten av livscykelinventeringen, som utvecklades i Excel, tilldelades till respektive miljöpåverkanskategori med miljöpåverkansbedömning. Miljöpåverkansbedömningen med ReCiPe2016 metoden vid mitt- och slutpunkterna visade att det centraliserade alternativet har lägst miljöpåverkan per kWh återvunnen värme från avloppsvatten. Mer specifikt, var miljöpåverkan av det centraliserade alternativet 0,131 kg CO2ekv/kWh, 1,27×10-7 Invaliditetsjusterade livsår/kWh, 3,73×10-10 markbundna artår/kWh, 80,6 kiloton CO2ekv, 1 780 Invaliditetsjusterade livsår, och 5,23 markbundna artår. Detta kan jämföras med resultaten av 50 % decentraliserad värmeåtervinning som var 0,164 kg CO2ekv/kWh, 1,59×10-7 Invaliditetsjusterade livsår/kWh, 4,68×10-10 markbundna artår/kWh, 82,8 kiloton CO2ekv, 1 600 Invaliditetsjusterade livsår, och 4,72 markbundna artår. Alternativet med 100 % decentralisering visade sig ha störst påverkan på alla kategorier. Känsligheten hos modellen undersöktes genom att variera viktiga parametrar.
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Miliutenko, Sofiia. "Life Cycle Impacts of Road Infrastructure : Assessment of energy use and greenhouse gas emissions." Licentiate thesis, KTH, Miljöstrategisk analys, 2012. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-89885.
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Road infrastructure is essential in the development of human society, but has both negative and positive impacts. Large amounts of money and natural resources are spent each year on its construction, operation and maintenance. Obviously, there is potentially significantenvironmental impact associated with these activities. Thus the need for integration of life cycle environmental impacts of road infrastructure into transport planning is currently being widely recognised on international and national level. However certain issues, such as energy use and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the construction, maintenance and operation of road infrastructure, are rarely considered during the current transport planning process in Sweden and most other countries.This thesis examined energy use and GHG emissions for the whole life cycle (construction, operation, maintenance and end-of-life) of road infrastructure, with the aim of improving transport planning on both strategic and project level. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) was applied to two selected case studies: LCA of a road tunnel and LCA of three methods for asphalt recycling and reuse: hot in-plant, hot in-place and reuse as unbound material. The impact categories selected for analysis were Cumulative Energy Demand (CED) and Global Warming Potential (GWP). Other methods used in the research included interviews and a literature review.The results of the first case study indicated that the operational phase of the tunnel contributed the highest share of CED and GWP throughout the tunnel’s life cycle. Construction of concrete tunnels had much higher CED and GWP per lane-metre than construction of rocktunnels. The results of the second case study showed that hot in-place recycling of asphalt gave slightly more net savings of GWP and CED than hot in-plant recycling. Asphalt reuse was less environmentally beneficial than either of these alternatives, resulting in no net savings of GWP and minor net savings of CED. Main sources of data uncertainty identified in the two case-studies included prediction of future electricity mix and inventory data for asphalt concrete.This thesis contributes to methodological development which will be useful to future infrastructure LCAs in terms of inventory data collection. It presents estimated amounts of energy use and GHG emissions associated with road infrastructure, on the example of roadtunnel and asphalt recycling. Operation of road infrastructure and production of construction materials are identified as the main priorities for decreasing GHG emissions and energy use during the life cycle of road infrastructure. It was concluded that the potential exists for significant decreases in GHG emissions and energy use associated with the road transport system if the entire life cycle of road infrastructure is taken into consideration from the very start of the policy-making process.QC 20120229
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Pierobon, Francesca. "Evaluation of the environmental impacts of wood products for bio-energy through Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)." Doctoral thesis, Università degli studi di Padova, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/11577/3424159.
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The use of wood for energy has grown in the last years as an alternative to fossil fuels. National and international laws promote the use of wood in the policies for the mitigation of climate change, based on the assumption that wood has a neutral carbon balance because the combustion emissions are offset by the absorption in forest (assumption of carbon neutrality). However, this assumption does not take into account the emissions associated with the life cycle of the product, e.g. related to processing and transporting biomass. In addition there is a time lag between the release of CO2 during combustion and its absorption in forest and this could have an impact on global warming.
The objectives of this research project are: 1) to assess the environmental impacts of wood products through Life Cycle Assessment (LCA); 2) to include the dynamics of forest carbon sequestration and natural decomposition of woody biomass in LCA. The research is conducted by means of two case studies: the first is the LCA of firewood in the Northern East Italy; the second concerns the production of wood chips in the Pacific Northwest in the United States. This dissertation consists in eight chapters. Chapter 1 describes the legislative framework and the state of the art of the international experiences and research projects on the subject. A review of literature studies was conducted highlighting the main limitations and defining the research objectives. Chapters 2 and 3 analyze the supply chain of wood products for bioenergy, providing reference data for the biomass extraction and production processes, the physico-chemical properties of wood and the LCA methodology, in terms of standards, databases, softwares and methodologies. Chapters 4 and 5 present the results of the two case studies which identify the transportation to be the critical phase of LCA, in the case of firewood related to the importation of raw materials from abroad, in the case of chips related to the transportation on forest road. Chapter 6 deals with the assessment of carbon sinks and stocks in the study areas previously analyzed. In Chapter 7 we face the problem of how to include forest carbon sequestration within the LCA. This led to the development of a methodology to perform a "dynamic LCA", which, in Chapter 8, is applied to a case study in the Pacific Northwest. The methodology is based on the use of radiative forcing to evaluate the impact of emissions and absorption sources on climate change. The results show that, in the case study considered, a "Radiative Forcing Turning Point" exists, i.e. a point located approximately in the middle of the forest rotation period (from 17 to 21 years old), where the life cycle impacts are compensated by carbon dioxide absorption and beyond which the biomass produces a net benefit in the carbon balance. The development of a dynamic LCA is very innovative in the context of LCA and allowed to discuss the veracity of the assumption of carbon neutrality.L’uso di prodotti legnosi per fini energetici è cresciuto negli ultimi anni come alternativa ai combustibili fossili. Leggi nazionali e internazionali promuovono l’uso del legno nell’ambito delle politiche di mitigazione dei cambiamenti climatici, basandosi sull’assunzione che il legno abbia un bilancio di carbonio nullo, in quanto le emissioni rilasciate dalla sua combustione vengono compensate dagli assorbimenti in foresta (assunzione di carbon neutrality).Tuttavia, questa assunzione non tiene in considerazione le emissioni associate al ciclo di vita del prodotto, e.g, alla lavorazione e al trasporto della biomassa. Inoltre c’è uno sfasamento temporale tra il rilascio di CO2 nella combustione e il suo assorbimento in foresta e questo potrebbe avere conseguenze sul global warming. Gli obiettivi di questo progetto di ricerca sono: 1) valutare degli impatti ambientali dei prodotti legnosi attraverso Life Cycle Assessment (LCA); 2) includere le dinamiche forestali di assorbimento di anidride carbonica e decomposizione naturale della biomassa legnosa nell’LCA. La ricerca è condotta per mezzo di due casi studio: il primo è costituito dall’LCA della legna da ardere nel Nord-Est Italia; il secondo riguarda la produzione di cippato nell’area del Pacific Northwest negli Stati Uniti. La tesi è costituita da otto capitoli. Nel Capitolo 1 si descrivono il quadro legislativo e lo stato dell'arte delle esperienze internazionali e dei progetti di ricerca sull’argomento. Viene inoltre effettuata una review di studi di letteratura mettendone in luce le principali limitazioni e definendo gli obiettivi di ricerca. I Capitoli 2 e 3 analizzano la catena di fornitura dei prodotti legnosi per fini energetici, fornendo dati di riferimento per i processi di estrazione e produzione della biomassa e per le caratteristiche fisico-chimiche del legno e la metodologia LCA, in termini di standard, banche dati, software e metodologie disponibili. I Capitoli 4 e 5 presentano i risultati dei due casi studio che identificano nel trasporto la fase critica dell’LCA, nel caso della legna da ardere legato all’importazione della materia prima dall’estero, nel caso del cippato legato al trasporto su strada forestale. Il Capitolo 6 riguarda la valutazione dei carbon sinks e stocks nelle aree di studio precedentemente analizzate. Nel capitolo 7 si affronta il problema di come includere il sequestro di carbonio in foresta nell'ambito dell’LCA. Questo ha portato allo sviluppo di una metodologia per effettuare un "LCA dinamico", che, nel Capitolo 8, viene applicata ad un caso studio nel Pacific Northwest. La metodologia si base sull’utilizzo del forzante radiativo per valutare l’impatto delle diverse fonti di emissioni ed assorbimento sul cambiamento climatico. I risultati mostrano che, nel caso studio considerato, esiste un “Radiative Forcing Turning Point”, ovvero un punto, situato circa a metà del periodo di rotazione della foresta (tra 17 e 21 anni), dove gli impatti del ciclo di vita vengono compensati dagli assorbimenti di anidride carbonica e oltre il quale la biomassa produce un beneficio netto in termini di bilancio del carbonio. Lo sviluppo di un LCA dinamico è molto innovativo nel quadro dell’LCA e ha permesso discutere la veridicità dell'assunto della carbon neutralità.
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Miliutenko, Sofiia. "Consideration of life cycle energy use and greenhouse gas emissions for improved road infrastructure planning." Doctoral thesis, KTH, Miljöstrategisk analys (fms), 2016. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-184163.
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Global warming is one of the biggest challenges of our society. The road transport sector is responsible for a big share of Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions, which are considered to be the dominant cause of global warming. Although most of those emissions are associated with traffic operation, road infrastructure should not be ignored, as it involves high consumption of energy and materials during a long lifetime. The aim of my research was to contribute to improved road infrastructure planning by developing methods and models to include a life cycle perspective. In order to reach the aim, GHG emissions and energy use at different life cycle stages of road infrastructure were assessed in three case studies using Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). These case studies were also used for development of methodology for LCA of road infrastructure. I have also investigated the coupling of LCA with Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and the possibility to integrate LCA into Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA). The results of the first case study indicated that operation of the tunnel (mainly, lighting and ventilation) has the largest contribution in terms of energy use and GHG emissions throughout its life cycle. The second case study identified the main hotspots and compared two methods for asphalt recycling and asphalt reuse. The results of the third case study indicated that due to the dominant contribution of traffic to the total impact of the road transport system, the difference in road length plays a major role in choice of road alternatives during early planning of road infrastructure. However, infrastructure should not be neglected, especially in the case of similar lengths of road alternatives, for roads with low volumes of traffic or when they include bridges or tunnels. This thesis contributed in terms of foreground and background data collection for further LCA studies of road infrastructure. Preliminary Bill of Quantities (BOQ) was identified and used as a source for site-specific data collection. A new approach was developed and tested for using geological data in a GIS environment as a data source on earthworks for LCA. Moreover, this thesis demonstrated three possible ways for integrating LCA in early stages of road infrastructure planning.QC 20160329
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Jonsson, Robert. "Life cycle energy optimization as a tool to compare and evaluate the optimal design in the automotive industry." Thesis, KTH, Lättkonstruktioner, 2020. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-285759.
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Fiber reinforced plastics are composite materials that offer a lower weight, while still mechanically perform at least as good as conventional materials such as steel. This makes them attractive for the automotive industry since the implementation of them in e.g. a car frame would enable the manufacturers to sell a more fuel efficient vehicle to the customer. The manufacturing of composites is however more energy intense than for steel and the recycling capabilities are limited. This encourages the car designer to regard the product from a macro-perspective, spanning from the extraction of the resources needed to produce the material, to the phase where the product which the material constitutes is disposed. By analyzing such a macro-perspective, the life cycle energy of a product system can be estimated. Since the life cycle energy is correlated to the component design, an optimization problem can be established where the objective function to be minimized is the total life cycle energy. The component design can be expressed in terms of optimization design variables, yielding that the minimum energy is achieved by the optimal design. This methodology is called life cycle energy optimization (LCEO). The aim of this thesis is to apply this method and present a comparison between different materials and recycling strategies for a load carrying frame component provided by Volvo Cars. The materials studied are carbon fiber reinforced plastics (CFRP), glass fiber sheet moulding compound (GF-SMC) and conventional steel. A Python model consisting of five life cycle phases where each phase was described by a function was implemented. Each function uses the component geometry and material properties as an input and gives the energy of the phase as an output. By summing the outputted energies, the life cycle energy is obtained. The distribution of the results is visualized with bar plots. The results show that the least energy demanding option is to manufacture the component in GF-SMC and process the end-of-life product mechanically. If the fiber degradation is taken into account, the most efficient strategy is to manufacture the component in CFRP and recycle it using solvolysis. This thesis shows that the LCEO methodology can be used as a tool for designers to include the recyclability in an early phase of the product development. Future challenges concern the development of industrial recycling of fiber reinforced plastics where the fiber degradation is minimized.Fiberförstärkta polymerplaster är kompositmaterial som erbjuder en lägre vikt än konventionella material som stål, samtidigt som de bibehåller den mekaniska prestandan. Detta gör dem intressanta för fordonsindustrin då nyttjandet av dem skulle möjliggöra tillverkare att sälja bränsleeffektivare bilar. Tillverkningen av sådana kompositer är dock mer energikrävande än den för stål och deras återvinningsmöjligheter är begränsade. Detta skapar för fordonsformgivaren ett incitament att beakta produkten i ett makroperspektiv som sträcker sig från utvinningen av naturresurserna för att skapa materialet, till slutskedet av produktens avsedda användning. Genom att bestämma hur den ackumulerade energin är fördelad i ett sådant makroperspektiv kan den total livscykelenergin beräknas. Eftersom livscykelenergin är kopplad till komponentens formgivning, kan ett optimeringsproblem med livscykelenergin som målfunktion att minimeras ställas upp. Komponentens formgivning kan uttryckas som optimeringsproblemets designvariabler. Den design som ger den lägsta livscykelenergin blir därmed den optimala formgivningen. Denna metod kallas livscykelenergioptimering (LCEO). Målet med detta examensarbete är att tillämpa denna metod på en lastbärande bilkomponent tillhandahållen av Volvo Cars och genomföra en jämförelseanalys mellan olika material samt återvinningsstrategier. Materialen som undersöks är kolfiberförstärkt härdplastkompist (CFRP), sheet moulding compound med glasfiber (GF-SMC) och konventionellt stål. Den Pythonimplementerade modellen består av fem livscykelfaser där varje fas uttrycks om en funktion med komponentgeomterin samt materialegenskaperna som indata och ger energiåtgången för fasen som utdata. Genom att summera energierna erhålls livscykelenergin och genom att presentera resultaten i ett stapeldiagram kan livscykelenergidistributionen visualiseras. Resultaten visar att det minst energikrävande alternativet är att tillverka komponenten i GF-SMC och återvinna produkten genom mekanisk bearbetning. Om hänsyn tas till fiberslitage blir den optimala lösningen att tillverka komponenten i CFRP och återvinna den genom solvolys. Detta arbete visar att LCEO- metoden, i ett tidigt skede, kan användas som ett verktyg av formgivare för att inkludera hur väl en produkt kan återvinnas. Framtida utmaningar består av att utveckla återvinningen av fiberförstärkta härdplaster industriellt, så att fiberslitaget minimeras.
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Thomson, Rachel Camilla. "Carbon and energy payback of variable renewable generation." Thesis, University of Edinburgh, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/1842/8875.
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The continued drive to reduce Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions in order to mitigate climate change has led to an increase in demand for low-carbon energy sources, and the development of new technologies to harness the available energy in the wind, waves and tides. Many controversies surround these technologies, however, particularly with regards to their economic cost, environmental impacts and the implications of the variability of their output for security of the electricity supply. In order to make informed policy decisions on future developments of the electricity system, it is necessary to address these controversies and confirm the environmental, economic and social sustainability of these new renewable generators. This thesis specifically examines two key issues: whether new variable-output renewable energy generators actually deliver a net reduction in greenhouse gas emissions over their lifetimes, and whether they produce a viable energy return on energy investment. Although renewable energy sources are themselves ‘carbon free’, GHG emissions (and energy consumption) occur during the construction, maintenance and decommissioning of the generator infrastructure required to convert this energy into electricity. Furthermore, the variability of the output power from such generators has implications for the operation of the grid - there may be a requirement for additional reserve capacity and the increased part-loading of conventional plant is likely to reduce its operating efficiency. Carbon and energy paybacks are measures of the time required for a new renewable installation to offset these life cycle impacts. The work presented in this thesis examines both the life cycle impacts and the GHG emissions displacement of variable renewable generation, using Great Britain as a case study, in order to provide a basis for significantly more robust and reliable estimates of carbon and energy paybacks. The extensive literature survey concentrates on two key areas: current calculation methodologies and estimates for life cycle carbon and energy consumption of power generators; and the marginal emissions displacement of variable renewable generation. A detailed life cycle assessment of the Pelamis wave energy converter is presented, which sets the embodied carbon and energy in the context of the wider environmental impacts and includes an examination of the effect of different assumptions on the analysis results. In order to investigate the true emissions displacement of renewable generation, a historical analysis of real data from the National Grid was carried out, identifying the marginal displacement factor of wind power and taking into account the effect of the efficiency penalties of conventional plant. The findings of the analyses presented in this thesis are combined with information from the literature to examine the actual carbon and energy payback of existing renewable generation infrastructure on the British grid, and to provide detailed recommendations for future carbon and energy payback calculations.
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Chen, Chao, and Yogesh Vishwas Bhamare. "Life Cycle Cost Analysis and Optimization of Wastewater Pumping System." Thesis, KTH, Hållbar utveckling, miljövetenskap och teknik, 2019. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-255866.
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Different attempts have been made to facilitate successful operation of Wastewater Pumping (WWP) system. The WWP units which are already existed in different parts of the world have been studied to identify its success, failure and different parameters associated with its suboptimal performance. The performance of WWP depends on three parameters namely pump, hydraulics, control system and pump station. These parameters are interdependent and must be carefully matched to achieve efficient WWP system. Nowadays the scenario has changed where organizations has started looking increasingly at the total cost of ownership, another way of saying Life Cycle Cost Analysis (LCCA) and recognizing the need to get most out of their equipment purchase. The master thesis includes theory part which describes the different parameters associated with WWP unit especially focusing on Xylems WWP system. This thesis is an attempt to help companies to know how LCCA could be productive management tool in order to minimize maintenance cost and maximize energy efficiency The study reported in this thesis work has been conducted to shed light over the use of Life Cycle Cost Analysis in WWP system. The current study tries to suggest and assess an adopted approach to ensure successful and efficient operation of WWP system with lowering energy demand and decrease in maintenance cost. Initial cost, Maintenance cost and Energy costs are important issues in the operation of WWP system since they are responsible for total cost over time. Therefore, description of each cost, formulas necessary for LCC calculations, data and survey structure, material and energy flow has been described. This work also aims to provide an extensive literature review, different survey and data collection techniques, analysis of collected data, statistical modelling, customer interaction by questionnaires and an interview with experts were used. LCC calculations were used to support the design and selection of most cost-efficient WWP system. Therefore, the given thesis work is an attempt to achieve better functional performance, improve existing design principles associated with WWP System, contribution to asses economic viability, support decision making to enhance operational quality to achieve efficient and successful WWP system.
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Strömner, Fredrik. "Jämförande LCA av engångssängkläder och tvättbara sängkläder i sjukvården." Thesis, Karlstads universitet, Institutionen för ingenjörs- och kemivetenskaper, 2014. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kau:diva-33112.
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Inom sjukvården används – precis som överallt där människor sover – sängkläder av hygienskäl. Problem med smittspridningar av typen multiresistenta bakterier (MRSA) och spridning av andra sjukdomar har drivit företag som Cellcomb i Karlstad AB till att utveckla engångssängkläder för att förhindra detta. Engångssängkläderna är skyddade av en biofilm som ska ge ökat skydd mot bakterier och fungerar som en barriär så att inte vätska tränger igenom. Problemet är att det inte finns mycket till underlag för hur engångssängkläderna står sig mot vanliga sängkläder ur miljösynpunkt. I dagsläget använder sjukhus traditionella sängkläder till sina patienter och sedan transporteras dessa till tvätteri och tvättas. Att tvätta och torka sängkläder är energikrävande och ett alternativ till detta skulle kunna vara att använda engångssängkläder. En förenklad LCA gjordes för att ta reda på om sängkläder tillverkade av bomull och polyester eller engångssängkläder tillverkade av polypropylen alternativt viskosmaterialet Tencel är det mest miljövänliga. För att ta reda på det gjordes studiebesök och data samlades in genom en litteraturstudie och från företag. Resultaten visade att i ett grundfall med Centralsjukhuset i Karlstad var energianvändningen för de tvättbara sängkläderna lägre än Tencel och försumbart lägre än polypropylen. Flera fall med känslighetsanalyser gjordes för att undersöka hur indata påverkade resultaten. Fallen visade att det kan variera vilket av alternativen som blir mest gynnsamt, framför allt när det gäller vilken typ av energi tvätteriet använder. Engångssängkläderna av Tencel visade sig vara bäst när det gällde andel förnybar energi följt av de tvättbara sängkläderna och sist polypropylen. Ur ett ekotoxicitets- och vattenanvändningsperspektiv blev båda engångssängkläderna mer gynnsamma än de tvättbara sängkläderna. Två slutsatser kan dras utifrån den här studien: de tre alternativen är likvärdiga energimässigt utifrån energianvändning, andel förnybar energi och de fallstudier som gjorts, men att engångssängkläderna står sig bättre när det gäller ekotoxicitet samt vattenanvändning. Den andra slutsatsen är att resultaten är fallberoende. En utökad studie skulle kunna göras med fler viktiga miljöparametrar och fler känslighetsanalyser.In healthcare – as in any other place where people sleep – beddings are used for hygiene reasons. Problems with spreading of bacteria diseases such as multi resistant bacteria (MRSA) and various other diseases have pushed companies like Cellcomb i Karlstad AB to develop disposable beddings in order to prevent this. These disposable beddings are protected with a biofilm which serves as a barrier, preventing liquids to pass through. The problem is that there is not much information about how these beddings perform from an environmental perspective. At present, hospitals are using traditional beddings for their patients and are then transported to laundries for washing. This is an energy intensive process and as an alternative, disposable beddings could be used. A simplified LCA was used to find out if beddings made out of cotton and polyester or disposable beddings made out of polypropylene or a viscose material called Tencel was the most favourable from an environmental perspective. To achieve this, various study visits were performed along with a literature study and data collection from companies. The results showed that for a basic case performed with Centralsjukhuset i Karlstad the washable beddings used less energy than Tencel and negligibly less energy than polypropylene. Several case studies were performed in order to examine how different data could alter the results. The case studies showed that which of the alternatives became the most favourable varied depending on the case, especially regarding which kind of energy was being used in the laundry. The disposable beddings made out of Tencel proved to be the best alternative regarding the use of renewable energy, followed by the washable beddings and last polypropylene. From a perspective of eco toxicity and water use both of the disposable beddings turned out more favourable. Two conclusions could be drawn from this study: the alternatives are equally favourable regarding energy use, renewable energy use and the case studies that were performed, but the disposable beddings are more preferable concerning eco toxicity and water use. The second conclusion is that the results depend on which case is studied. An expanded study could be performed using more environmental parameters.
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de, Fatima Dias Jane. "Reuse of Construction Materials." Thesis, Högskolan Dalarna, Energiteknik, 2018. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:du-30024.
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The building and construction sectors are one of the main contributors to the socio-economic development of a country. Globally, these sectors generate around 5% to 10% of national employment and around 5% to 15% of a country's gross domestic product during construction, use and demolition. On the other hand, the sectors consume around 40% of world primary energy, use 30% of raw materials, generate 25% of solid waste, consume 25% of water, and use 12% of land. Furthermore, the sectors account for up to 40% of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, mainly from energy use during the life cycle of buildings. This study aims to assess the potential environmental benefits of reusing concrete and ceramic roof tile within the Swedish context in terms of their CO2 emission. Methodology used was a comparative LCA was to quantify the emissions. In order to calculate LCA, OpenLCA 1.7.0 software was used and to evaluate the emissions, LCIA method selected was ReCiPe, midpoint, Hierarchist model, climate change category expressed in GWP 100 years (in kg CO2eq). The FU of the study was a square meter of roof covering for a period of 40 years with potential to extent up to 80 years. A square meter of concrete roof tile weight 40 kg while ceramic 30 kg. The environment impact evaluation considered three product system, single use (cradle to grave), single use covering (cradle to user) and single reuse (user to cradle) within 40 years lifespan. In order to compare LCA of the roof tiles, two scenarios were created, Scenario 1 concrete RT in single use and single reuse whilst Scenario 2 evaluates ceramic RT. The outcomes of both scenarios were communicated through a model single family house. Dalarna’s Villa is located in Dalarna region in Sweden and a storage facility Ta Till Våra was to validate the benefits of reused materials. Comparative LCA revealed that concrete RT in single use released almost 80% more CO2 emissions than ceramic RT and generated 25% more disposable material by weight. The CO2 released by the single use vs. single reuse concrete RT showed higher emissions in the production of the concrete RT than the single reuse, the same occur with ceramic RT. The reuse of the tiles on the same site had an insignificant impact on the environment in both materials. The comparison shows that reuse reduces associated emissions by about 80% in both cases, reusing concrete is more beneficial, as emissions are reduced by 9.95 kg/m2 as opposed to 2.32 kg/m2 at the ceramics. This study reveals the benefit of reusing concrete and ceramic roof tile. In addition, the advantage of building a storage facility to reuse the disposable building materials, reducing the roofing materials ending at the landfill after 40 years. Furthermore, it demonstrated the reduction of CO2 emissions associated with the embodied energy.
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Núñez, Pineda Montse. "Modelling location-dependent environmental impacts in life cycle assessment: water use, desertification and soil erosion. Application to energy crops grown in Spain." Doctoral thesis, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/10803/79135.
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Soil and freshwater are two absolutely essential resources for ecosystems and humanity. Agriculture depends very much on these resources, and so, without their correct management, farmland practices can trigger many adverse impacts on the environment and jeopardise the availability of soil and water for future agricultural activities. Agricultural lands represent only 12% of the world’s land area. However, roughly 70% of water withdrawals from nature are for irrigated agriculture and 30-40% of the agricultural land is affected by soil degradation. Desertification, irreversible soil degradation, is one of the main problems for sustainability in drylands, areas that cover 40% of the earth’s surface. For these reasons, the environmental impacts of the use of water and land by agricultural activities should be measured.
Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a method to construct the environmental profile of production systems. It was initially developed for industrial production, but a considerable amount of research has been undertaken in recent years to adapt LCA to agricultural systems as well. Conventional LCA methodology does not determine the environmental impacts of water and land use, which is a very significant shortcoming when evaluating the environmental performance of agricultural systems. Furthermore, contrary to other global environmental impact categories such as global warming, the environmental impacts of water and land use vary in every location of the globe, depending on the spatio-temporal conditions of the location, requiring therefore an extension of current LCA methodology.
This thesis focuses on the development of the LCA methodology to incorporate the environmental impacts arising from the use of water and land. The spatio-temporal variability of these resources is taken into account in the proposed methods using the complementary tool of geographic information systems (GIS). For water use, two screening frameworks are built to capture the impacts of soil-water consumption by plants, when, until now, efforts have been directed towards evaluating the environmental impacts of irrigation water consumption. For land use, a multi-indicator approach for a new impact category, desertification, until now never modelled in the LCA context, is provided, as well as a methodology for including soil erosion impacts, in which the soil loss has been related to the loss of organic carbon, as a measure of the soil quality, and finally, to the loss of biomass productivity of ecosystems. The methods developed deal with the life cycle inventory (LCI) and the life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) phases.
In addition, to verify the applicability of the developed location-dependent methods and characterisation factors, these are applied to agricultural crop rotations with energy crops growing in Spain, with the aim of quantifying the side effects of producing bioenergy on the disputed water and land resources in the country. The outcomes indicate that there is no best solution of a single crop rotation grown in a specific location capable of minimising water and land use environmental impacts simultaneously. This is because, firstly, rainfed crop rotations exhibit higher land use related impacts but, in contrast, they are not irrigated. And secondly, locations with more surface, ground and soil water reserves are subjected to more intensive and erosive rainfalls, thus, to higher land use damages.
Among other important follow-up lines of research, future work should focus on the study of suitable functional units for agricultural LCA, calculate the uncertainties of the developed methods as well as try to identify a feasible and relevant geographical scale at which to address the spatial differentiation of the characterisation factors for water and land use impacts, and in general, for any location-dependent impact category.Suelo y agua dulce son dos recursos imprescindibles para los ecosistemas y la humanidad. La agricultura depende de la disponibilidad de estos recursos, que por tanto, debe gestionar correctamente. En caso contrario, las prácticas agrícolas pueden provocar impactos adversos en el medio ambiente y poner en peligro la disponibilidad de suelo y agua para futuras actividades agrícolas. Los suelos agrícolas representan sólo el 12% de la superficie terrestre mundial. Sin embargo, aproximadamente el 70% de las extracciones de agua de la naturaleza se utilizan en la agricultura de irrigación y el 30-40% de los suelos destinados a la agricultura están degradados. La desertificación, entendida como la degradación irreversible del suelo, es uno de los mayores problemas para la sostenibilidad de las tierras áridas, áreas que cubren el 40% de la superficie terrestre. Por estos motivos, deben evaluarse los impactos ambientales debidos al uso del suelo y del agua en la agricultura. El análisis de ciclo de vida (ACV) es un método para evaluar el perfil ambiental de sistemas productivos. El ACV se desarrolló inicialmente para estudiar la producción industrial, pero en los últimos años la investigación se ha dirigido a la adaptación del método para poder aplicarlo también en los sistemas agrícolas. La metodología convencional de ACV no determina los impactos ambientales debidos al uso del suelo y del agua, siendo ésta una importante deficiencia para evaluar el perfil ambiental de los sistemas agrícolas. Además, al contrario de otras categorías de impacto ambiental global, como el calentamiento global, los impactos ambientales derivados del uso del suelo y del agua son distintos en cada lugar del planeta, en función de las condiciones espacio-temporales del sitio. Por tanto, es necesario extender la metodología actual de ACV. Esta tesis se centra en el desarrollo de la metodología de ACV para incorporar los impactos ambientales resultantes del uso del suelo y del agua. La variabilidad espacio-temporal de estos recursos se tiene en cuenta en los métodos propuestos utilizando la herramienta complementaria de los sistemas de información geográfica (SIG). Para el uso del agua, se presentan dos métodos de aproximación para medir los impactos debidos al consumo de agua de las reservas del suelo, cuando, hasta la fecha, los estudios han intentado evaluar los impactos ambientales debidos al consumo de agua para la irrigación. Para el uso del suelo, se propone una aproximación multi-indicador para modelar el impacto de la desertificación, una categoría nunca antes incluida en ACV, así como una metodología para incluir los impactos de la erosión del suelo, donde la pérdida de suelo se relaciona con la pérdida de carbono orgánico, como medida de la calidad del suelo, y finalmente, con la disminución de producción de biomasa de los ecosistemas. Los métodos desarrollados comprenden las fases de inventario de ciclo de vida (ICV) y de evaluación de impacto de ciclo de vida (EICV). Además, para comprobar la aplicabilidad de los métodos regionalizados de ACV y de los factores de caracterización desarrollados, estos se aplican en rotaciones de cultivos con cultivos energéticos en España, con el objetivo de cuantificar los efectos colaterales de producir bioenergía sobre los recursos suelo y agua, muy disputados en el país. Los resultados revelan que no hay una solución idónea, con una rotación de cultivos sembrados en una zona específica del país, que sea capaz de reducir, simultáneamente, los impactos ambientales debidos al uso de suelo y agua. Esto se debe, en primer lugar, a que los cultivos de secano muestran mayores impactos relacionados con el uso del suelo, pero, al contrario, no utilizan agua de irrigación. Y en segundo lugar, a que las zonas con más reservas de agua en superficie, acuíferos y suelos están también sometidas a lluvias más intensas y erosivas, y en consecuencia, a un mayor deterioro del suelo. Entre otras importantes líneas de investigación a seguir, próximos trabajos deben centrarse en el estudio de unidades funcionales adecuadas para el ACV de sistemas agrícolas, el cálculo de las incertidumbres de los métodos desarrollados en la tesis, así como en la identificación de una escala geográfica significativa y de aplicación factible que aborde la diferenciación espacial de los factores de caracterización para los impactos del uso del suelo y del agua, y, en general, para cualquier categoría de impacto ambiental regional.
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Jalaei, Farzad. "Integrate Building Information Modeling (BIM) and Sustainable Design at the Conceptual Stage of Building Projects." Thesis, Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/10393/32536.
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Lately the construction industry has become more interested in designing and constructing environmentally friendly buildings (e.g. sustainable buildings) that can provide both high performance and monetary savings. Analyzing various parameters during sustainable design such as Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and energy consumption, lighting simulation, green building rating system criteria and associated cost of building components at the conceptual design stage is very useful for designers needing to make decisions related to the selection of optimum design alternatives. Building Information Modeling (BIM) offers designers the ability to assess different design options and to select vital energy strategies and systems at the conceptual stage of proposed buildings.
This thesis describes a methodology to implement sustainable design for proposed buildings at their conceptual stage. The proposed methodology is to be implemented through the design and development of a model that simplifies the process of designing sustainable buildings, evaluating their Environmental Impacts (EI), assessing their operational and embodied energy and listing their potential accumulated certification points in an integrated environment. Therefore, a Decision Support System (DSS) is developed by using Multiple Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) techniques to help design team decides and selects the best type of sustainable building components and design families for proposed projects based on three main criteria (i.e. Environmental, Economical factor «cost efficiency » and Social wellbeing) in an attempt to identify the influence of design variations on the sustainable performance of the whole building.
The DSS outcomes are incorporated in an integrated model capable of guiding users when performing sustainable design for building projects. The proposed methodology contains five modules: 1) Database Management System (DBMS), 2) Energy and lighting analysis, 3) Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), 4) LEED and 5) Life Cycle Cost (LCC). To improve the workability of the proposed model, a use case of abovementioned modules are going to be created as plug-ins in BIM tool.
The successful implementation of such a methodology represents a significant advancement in the ability to attain sustainable design of a building during the early stages, to evaluate its EI, and to list its potentially earned certification points and associated soft costs.
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Faze, Natasha Ranjit. "Life Cycle And Economic Analysis Comparing Microbial Desalination Cell And Reverse Osmosis Technologies." The Ohio State University, 2015. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1428934798.
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Choi, Chong Seok Seok. "COMBINED LAND USE OF SOLAR INFRASTRUCTURE AND AGRICULTURE FOR SOCIOECONOMIC AND ENVIRONMENTAL CO-BENEFITS IN THE TROPICS." Master's thesis, Temple University Libraries, 2019. http://cdm16002.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/p245801coll10/id/546811.
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GeologyM.S.
Solar photovoltaic (PV) generation has been gaining popularity as low carbon energy technology in the face of the global climate change. However, conventional utility-scale PV requires large swaths of land to be occupied for decades which prevents the land from producing food or performing vital ecosystem services. Co-location of PV with crop cultivation is an emerging strategy for mitigating the land use of PV. In order to optimize this strategy, the impact of the plant growth-related soil properties need to be quantified. To this end, the first portion of the thesis investigated the impacts on the soil properties in a re-vegetated solar PV facility in Boulder, Colorado, which was the oldest vegetation-PV co-location site in the world. The second portion of the thesis uses a life cycle analysis (LCA) approach to test the feasibility of co-location of model crop cultivation and solar PV electricity generation in rural Indonesia, and it is the first study to use the LCA study of the co-located solar in the tropics. The first approach revealed that the soil hydrology, grain size distribution, and total carbon and nitrogen are significantly altered from their original state by the construction and presence of photovoltaic arrays, and that those properties had not been restored to their pre-construction levels despite the fact that ten years had passed since re-vegetation of the PV array. The persistence of the altered soil properties meant that the designs regarding re-vegetation or co-location of PV with crops would have to be considered at the beginning of the construction of the PV to minimize the impact on the soil and the existing vegetation. Furthermore, soil moisture was the highest in the soil underneath the western edge of the PV panels, where the western tilt of the PV panel had concentrated the rainfall. The heterogeneity in soil hydrology created by the panels could be manipulated to benefit the growth of vegetation within the PV array. The LCA approach revealed that a hectare of PV arrays with full module density would carbon offsets against diesel electricity generation and the grid, and that the annual supply of electricity from the PV could satisfy the demand of a typical rural Indonesian village several times over. However, the high capital expenditure of solar mean that co-location with full PV module density would not be economically feasible, even with the income stream from the co-located crop cultivation. In order to reduce the capital expenditure, the PV module density for co-location was reduced to half. The combination of reduced capital expenditure and the income stream from the crop made the co-located land use significantly less costly. Additionally, the rural electrification would be able to provide secondary socioeconomic benefits such as avoidance of health costs through operation of public health infrastructures, increased standard of living, and secondary income opportunities from processing of raw materials. However, better subsidies for renewables, specialized loan structures for small-scale renewable systems, and a culture of co-operation between small landholders would need to be implemented before the co-located system becomes affordable to the inhabitants in rural Indonesian villages.
Temple University--Theses
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Bartek, Louise. "Life cycle assessment of DHA produced by microalgae using food waste : Assessing global warming, fossil energy use and effects on biodiversity." Thesis, Uppsala universitet, Institutionen för geovetenskaper, 2020. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-415543.
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Biodiversity is a key component for life on Earth since it contributes to clean water, fresh air and food security. Today, fatty fish farmed in aquaculture is the main Omega 3 source consumed by humans, including the essential fatty acid docosahexaenoic acid (DHA). DHA origin from plants and accumulate in fish via the marine food web. Therefore, DHA in the form of fish oil is often added to fish feed used in aquaculture. This process is dependent on fossil energy and marine raw materials, which infer increased global warming, damage to ecosystem and ultimately loss of biodiversity. In order to reduce the environmental impact, the essential fatty acid could instead be derived from the marine primary producer of DHA: microalgae. In this thesis, a life cycle approach was used to assess global warming, use of fossil fuels and Ecosystem damage when DHA is produced by the microalgae Crypthecodinium Cohnii. The environmental impact was modelled using SimaPro 9 and assessed with CML-IA and ReCiPe Endpoint. In this model, volatile fatty acids derived from dark fermentation of food waste was used as feedstock to the algae. The studied systems consisted of two parallel scenarios, one conventional food waste-to-biogas with DHA from fish oil and one conceptual food waste-to-DHA with DHA from algae oil. The aim was to evaluate the future potential of DHA produced from algae, by assessing and comparing environmental impact to DHA produced from Peruvian anchovy. For every ton DHA produced by microalgae the assessed impact was -1.9E+02 tonCO2e, -1.9 TJ and 9.7E-04 species.yr. DHA produced by microalgae using VFA from food waste was shown to mitigate global warming and reduce use of fossil fuels. The most important conclusion show that DHA from algae infer 37% lower biodiversity loss in comparison to DHA from Peruvian anchovy. Thus, DHA from microalgae could reduce dependency on marine raw material and decrease biodiversity loss.Biodiversitet är en nyckelkomponent för liv på jorden eftersom det bidrar till rent vatten, frisk luft och säker livsmedelsproduktion. Idag är fet fisk odlad i vattenbruk den viktigaste källan till Omega 3 som konsumeras av människor, inklusive den essentiella fettsyran dokosahexaensyra (DHA). Då DHA härstammar från växter och ackumuleras i fisk via den marina näringskedjan, tillsätts DHA ofta till fiskfoder i form av fiskolja. Denna process är beroende av fossil energi och marina råmaterial, som leder till ökad global uppvärmning, skadar naturliga ekosystem och orsakar förlust av biologisk mångfald. För att minska miljöpåverkan skulle den essentiella fettsyran istället kunna produceras från den marina primärproducenten av DHA: mikroalger. I detta examensarbete användes livscykelanalys för att utvärdera miljöpåverkan med avseende på global uppvärmning, användning av fossila bränslen och påverkan på biodiversitet, då DHA produceras av mikroalgen Crypthecodinium Cohnii. Flyktiga fettsyror, VFA, som bildas vid mörk fermentering av matavfall användes som råmaterial till algerna. De studerade systemen bestod av två parallella scenarier, en konventionell matavfall-till-biogas med DHA från fiskolja och en konceptuell matavfall-till-DHA med DHA från algolja. Systemet modellerades i SimaPro 9 och miljöpåverkan beräknades med CML-IA och ReCiPe Endpoint. Syftet var att utvärdera DHA som produceras från alger genom att beräkna miljöpåverkan och jämföra med DHA producerad från peruansk ansjovis. För varje ton DHA producerat av mikroalger var påverkan -1.9E+02 tonCO2e, -1.9 TJ och 9.7E-04 arter per år. DHA producerad av mikroalger där VFA från matavfall använts som näring, visade sig minska den globala uppvärmningen, reducera användningen av fossila bränslen och innebar 37% lägre förlust av biologisk mångfald jämfört med DHA producerad från peruansk ansjovis. Denna studie visade därmed att DHA från mikroalger kunde minska beroendet av marina råmaterial och minska förlusten av biologisk mångfald.
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Khan, Mahmudur Aryan. "A comparative Life Cycle Analysis of new and old designs of crane truck frames : Case study at Vemservice." Thesis, Mittuniversitetet, Avdelningen för ekoteknik och hållbart byggande, 2018. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:miun:diva-41976.
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The main objective of this Bachelor’s thesis is to investigate and deliver the results of environmental impacts of two different designs of crane truck frames. The aim is to investigate if additional new design of crane truck frames, with less energy and transportation during manufacturing of the crane truck, can improve energy efficiency of crane trucks throughout their lifecycle. Case study object for this report is Vemservice in Vemdalen, Sweden. As basis for the report the The Life Cycle Analysis ISO 14040 and ISO 14044 are used in this report in order to evaluate and compare the environmental impacts related to the lifecycle of new and old designs of 92 tonmeter crane truck frames from cradle to grave. The data was mainly collected and calculated by using the SimaPro software 8.0.5 which is based on the Ecoinvent 3 database. This study mainly analyzes environmental impacts such as GWP (Global Warming Potential), CED (Cumulative Energy Demand) and ReCiPe environmental impacts. The results showed that although new design frame has less transportation and energy demand during the manufacturing phase of the crane truck, the overall life cycle of the new design crane truck frame has higher environmental impacts than the existing old design of the crane truck frame. This is due to that the new design frame is 213kg heavier than the old design frame, which the crane truck is carrying during its using period. This study also investigated whether the new design frame, with stronger steel (Ecoupgraded steel) and a reduction of 15% of the total weight of frame, has a lower environmental impact in the life cycle of the EcoUpgraded steel frame compared to the current new design and old design frames life cycle.2018-06-29
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Larsson, Emelie, and Anton Lydell. "Livscykelanalys och livscykelkostnadsanalys av nyckelfärdiga flerbostadshus : En jämförelse mellan betong- och träkonstruktion." Thesis, Linköpings universitet, Energisystem, 2018. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:liu:diva-150099.
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I Sverige står bostadssektorn för mer än en tredjedel av landets energianvändning. Byggnader måste minska sin energianvändning för att således kunna uppfylla framtida lagkrav om maximal tillåten energianvändning, men också för att minska påverkan till global uppvärmning. Ytterligare en problematik som råder, däribland i Sverige, är bostadsbrist. Kommunala bostadsbolag står inför utmaningen att kunna bygga bostäder snabbt, billigt och miljövänligt för att minska bostadsbristen i landet. Ett sätt att studera två av tre hållbarhetsaspekter vid val av framtida bostadsbyggande är att utföra en livscykelanalys (LCA) och livscykelkostnadsanalys (LCC) kring de tilltänkta husen. LCA:er indikerar vilken miljöpåverkan en produkt förorsakar under dess livslängd. LCC:er avser att studera vilka kostnader produkter ger upphov till under en given analysperiod. Det svenska kommunala bostadsbolaget Stångåstaden AB står inför utmaningen kring bostadsbrist och vill bygga hållbara bostäder. Bostadsbolaget har önskat en jämförande LCA och LCC av två verkliga flerbostadshus som de genom ramavtal kan upphandla, detta är utgångspunkten för denna studie. Den ena byggnaden har stomme av betong, den andra har stomme av trä. Husen är tänkta att placeras i utkanten av Linköping, Sverige. Studien har valt att analysera miljöpåverkan från husens olika livscykelfaser samt kostnader över analysperioden 50 år. Utöver detta studeras även vilka energieffektiviseringsåtgärder (EEÅ) till byggnaderna som är optimala att genomföra för att öka den termiska prestandan hos huskonstruktionerna. Från litteraturen finns det relativt få studier som kombinerar både LCA och LCC för vanligt förekommande hustyper i städer. I dess standardfall påvisade resultatet från LCA:n att huset med betongkonstruktion hade något lägre påverkan i sex av sju studerade miljöpåverkanskategorier, jämfört med flerbostadshuset i trä. Resultatet skilde sig lite åt då annan typ av indata användes. Vad gäller kostnader under husens livslängd var huset i trä ungefär 20 % dyrare jämfört med huset med betongkonstruktion. Trots annan typ av indata var träkonstruktionen dyrare än betongkonstruktionen. Med en kalkylränta på 7,5 % var det inte lönsamt att genomföra EEÅ för husen, med halverad kalkylränta blev det dock lönsamt att tilläggsisolera krypgrunden i huset med trästomme. Fler studier behöver utföras för att generalla slutsatser ska kunna dras kring vilket konstruktionsmaterial som är mest hållbart. Denna studie baseras på två specifika fall. Samma resultat kan eventuellt inte förväntas för andra byggnader med stomme i betong och trä.The residential sector accounts for more than a third of the energy use in Sweden. To reduce the energy use of buildings is a necessity in order to meet future regulationof maximum allowable energy, but also important to reduce the impact on global warming. Another complexity arising in Sweden is the shortage of accommodation. Municipal housing corporations face the challenge of constructing residences fast, cheap and with concern of environmental effects in order to reduce the shortage of accommodation. One way of assessing two of the three aspects of sustainability when looking at future construction of residential buildings is to carry out a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and a Life Cycle Cost Assessment (LCCA). An LCA can indicate what kind of environmental impact a product causes over its lifetime and the LCC allows for assessing what types of costs are associated with the product. For the municipal housing corporation Stångåstaden AB the shortage of accommodation is a reality and their mindset is sustainable construction of residences. This study was conducted upon request from Stångåstaden who wanted a comparative LCA and LCCA between two prefabricated multi-residential buildings that are available to them through a framework agreement. The first building has a concrete foundation and the second one is made of wood. The houses are planned to be placed at the outskirts of Linköping, Sweden. The focus of this study has been to comparatively assess the environmental impact from the different life cycle phases and the economic costs of the two buildings during a time period of 50 years. Moreover, the thesis also analyze the optimal retrofit strategy for the buildings in order to find the optimal (lowest) life cycle cost. Furthermore, the current literature has conveyed relatively few studies that combine both LCA and LCC methodology for house types that are common in most towns. The result from the LCA indicated that the house with concrete construction had a little less impact in six of the seven studied environmental impact categories compared to the house made of wood. The result differed slightly when the input data were changed. Regarding the LCCA the house made of wood was roughly 20 % more expensive than its concrete counterpart. Changing the input data revealed no difference in the result. With an interest rate of 7,5 % no retrofits were profitable for either building, however reducing the interest rate to half its original value made it cost optimal to increase the floor insulation for the house made of wood. More studies should be conducted to be able to draw general conclusions regarding which construction material that is the most sustainable. This thesis is based on two specific and real cases. The same result could possibly not be expected from other studies comparing buildings with concrete and wood construction.
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Conestabile, Della Staffa Beatrice. "LCA(Life Cycle Assessment) e SAT (Sustainability Assessment of Technology)Come strumenti di gestione sostenibile delle condotte dell'acquedotto di Reggio Emilia." Master's thesis, Alma Mater Studiorum - Università di Bologna, 2010. http://amslaurea.unibo.it/1660/.
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Perman, Daniel. "Optimal väggisoleringstjocklek på hyresfastighet vid begränsad byggyta." Thesis, Örebro universitet, Institutionen för naturvetenskap och teknik, 2011. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:oru:diva-26411.
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Miljömedvetenheten och ökat intresse för energieffektiva hus har gjort att byggnader isoleras som aldrig förr. Oftast är det på lång sikt ganska så lätt att räkna hem en ökad isoleringsmängd och det är just den ekonomiska vinsten som brukar lyftas fram som det främsta argument varför en beställare bör välja den tjockare isoleringen. För en beställare av hyresfastigheter är det oftast ekonomin som avgör ifall ett projekt ska påbörjas eller inte och denna studie ska därför vara en hjälp till att välja den mest ekonomiska isoleringstjockleken i väggar. Syftet med denna studie är att utreda var den optimala väggisoleringstjocken hamnar på en hyresfastighet med flerfamiljsbostäder som byggs på en begränsad byggyta. Inte sällan finns det krav på maximal byggyta från kommunen och då innebär det att ju tjockare isoleringen är desto mindre blir den uthyrningsbara boytan. Kvalitativa intervjuer låg till grund för att bestämma några vanligt förekommande ytterväggskonstruktioner som isoleringen sedan skulle optimeras på. Dessa ytterväggar placerades på en teoretisk referensbyggnad som därefter energiberäknades med hjälp av handberäkningar där matematiska uttryck för en varierande isoleringstjocklek användes. De teoretiska ytterväggarna kalkylerades därefter med hjälp av kalkylprogrammet Sektionsdata. En livscykelkostnadsanalys utfördes sedan där historisk statistik på hyror, energipriser och räntor utnyttjades. Slutligen kunde en optimal isoleringstjocklek hittas för varje väggtyp. Väggkonstruktionerna som valts var två betongväggar och två träregelväggar, båda med puts respektive tegel. Optimal isoleringstjocklek för väggkonstruktionen betongstomme med tegel hamnade på 84mm. För väggkonstruktionen betongstomme med puts hamnade optimal isoleringstjocklek på 88mm. För väggkonstruktionerna med trästomme kunde en optimal isoleringstjocklek inte hittas eftersom väggarnas uppbyggnad med två respektive tre isoleringsskikt gjorde att väggarna förblev överisolerade i ett ekonomiskt perspektiv även vid minsta möjliga tjocklek på isoleringsskiktet som skulle optimeras. Studien visar på att det med dagens byggregler ger en stor vinst att hålla nere på väggisoleringstjockleken på flerfamiljsbostäder som byggs på en begränsad byggyta.Environmental awareness and increased interest in energy-efficient housing have made the buildings more insulated in Sweden. Usually, it is quite easy to calculate a profit from a greater amount of insulation, in the long term. This is usually the seller’s main argument to why the client should choose the thicker insulation. For a client that wants to build a rental property, it is usually the economy that determines whether a project should be started or not. Hopefully this study will be a help to choose the most economic insulation thickness in walls. The purpose of this study is to investigate where the optimum of wall insulation thickness is in an apartment building for renting which is built on a limited area. Quite often there are requirements for a maximum building area from the municipality, which means that the rentable living space will come smaller when the insulation gets thicker. Qualitative interviews were used to determinate the common wall constructions which the insulation would be optimized for. These walls were placed in a theoretical reference building in which the energy use were estimated using hand calculations where mathematical expressions of a variety of insulation thickness were used. Thereafter, the prices of the walls were calculated using a spreadsheet program called Sektionsdata. A life cycle cost analysis was performed in which the historical statistics on rents, energy prices and interest rates were used. Finally, the optimal insulation thickness was found for each wall type. The wall types chosen were a wall of concrete and brick, a wall of concrete and rendering, a wall of wood and brick and a wall of wood and rendering. Optimal insulation thickness of the wall with concrete and brick ended up at 84mm. For the wall of rendered concrete, the optimal insulation thickness ended up at 88mm. The optimal insulation thickness of the walls of wood could not be found as the wall structure with two and three insulation layers made the walls too isolated in an economic perspective even at a minimal thickness of the layer that was going to be optimized. The study shows that with current building codes in Sweden it is profitable to keep down the wall insulation thickness in an apartment building for renting, built on a limited area.
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Peñaloza, Diego. "Exploring climate impacts of timber buildings : The effects from including non-traditional aspects in life cycle impact assessment." Licentiate thesis, KTH, Byggnadsmaterial, 2015. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-161193.
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There is an urgency within the building sector to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions and mitigate climate change. An increased proportion of biobased building materials in construction is a potential measure to reduce these emissions. Life cycle assessment (LCA) has often been applied to compare the climate impact from biobased materials with that from e.g. mineral based materials, mostly favouring biobased materials. Contradicting results have however been reported due to differences in methodology, as there is not yet consensus regarding certain aspects. The aim of this thesis is to study the implications from non-traditional practices in climate impact assessment of timber buildings, and to discuss the shortcomings of current practices when assessing such products and comparing them with non-renewable alternatives. The traditional practices for climate impact assessment of biobased materials have been identified, and then applied to a case study of a building with different timber frame designs and an alternative building with a concrete frame. Then, non-traditional practices were explored by calculating climate impact results using alternative methods to handle certain methodological aspects, which have been found relevant for forest products in previous research such as the timing of emissions, biogenic emissions, carbon storage in the products, end-of-life substitution credits, soil carbon disturbances and change in albedo. These alternative practices and their implications were also studied for low-carbon buildings. The use of non-traditional practices can affect the climate impact assessment results of timber buildings, and to some extent the comparison with buildings with lower content of biobased building materials. This effect is especially evident for energy-efficient buildings. Current normal practices tend to account separately for forest-related carbon flows and aspects such as biogenic carbon emissions and sequestration or effects from carbon storage in the products, missing to capture the forest carbon cycle as a whole. Climate neutrality of wood-based construction materials seems like a valid assumption for studies which require methodological simplification, while other aspects such as end-of-life substitution credits, soil carbon disturbances or changes in albedo should be studied carefully due to their potentially high implications and the uncertainties around the methods used to account for them. If forest phenomena are to be included in LCA studies, a robust and complete model of the forest carbon cycle should be used. Another shortcoming is the lack of clear communication of the way some important aspects were handled.QC 20150310
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Martínez, Gasol Carles. "Environmental and economic integrated assessment of local energy crops production in southern Europe." Doctoral thesis, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/10803/3308.
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Aquesta tesis analitza l'impacte ambiental i econòmic de tres cultius energètics (Brassica carinata, Brassica napus and Populus spp.) destinats a la producció d'energia tèrmica, elèctrica i per biodiesel.Durant la dècada dels noranta , la biomassa per a la producció d'energia va esdevenir como una font d'energia renovable amb un gran mercat amb molt de creixement a Europa.
La biomassa, i en particular els cultius energètics (cultius cultivats per amb l'única finalitat d'obtenir energia com a producte final) rebien molta atenció com a promesa de font d'energia sostenible. Degut a aquestes expectatives i aquest creixent interès molts governs de la Unió Europea van reconèixer que un increment de l'ús dels cultius energètics hauria ser acompanyat d'anàlisis detallats, diferents estudies van ser realitzats focalitzant en l'impacte ambiental i energètic de la biomassa i els cultius energètics. Països del nord-oest i centre d'Europa van posar molt esforç en la recerca i recerca de cultius energètics destinats a produir energia (tèrmica i elèctrica) durant dècades. En canvi, la implementació d'aquests cultius al sur d'Europa ha estat més lenta. Per exemple, només a Espanya, està previst que l'any 2010 existeixin 1 milió d'hectàrees que produiran 1.09 Mtep amb cultius energètics, però la realitat es que l'energia produïda amb cultius energètics és pràcticament inexistent a l'actualitat.
Actualment hi ha una necessitat d'anàlisis quantitatius de l'actuació ambiental, energètica i econòmica de la biomassa de cultiu energètic explotada en les condicions tècniques del sud d'Europa.
Alguns dels resultats obtinguts demostren que la biomassa produïda a escala local té un potencial de reducció d'emissions de CO2 eq. Entre 33.1% a 88% depenent de la tipologia de biomassa quan es compara amb recursos no renovables com el gas natural or diesel.
This thesis analyse the environmental and economical performance of three energy crops (Brassica carinata, Brassica napus and Populus spp.) for energy production.
During the nineties, biomass for energy conversion came to be seen as one of the sources of renewable energy with the largest potential for market growth in Europe.
Biomass, and in particular energy crops (crop plants used to obtain energy) received attention as a promising, sustainable energy source. Due to the expectancy, this aroused and the fact that most of the EU governments recognized that an increase in the use of energetic crops should be accompanied by a detailed analysis, several studies were made that focused on the energy and environmental performance of biomass and energy crops. North-western and central European countries put the biggest effort into the research and use of energy crops for power and heat generation over recent decades, while in southern Europe the introduction of energy crops to agriculture is slower. For example, only in Spain, it is foreseen that by 2010 one million hectares will be destined for the production of 1.09 Mtep by energetic crops, but the fact is that the energy produced by energy crops is inexistent.
Nowadays there is a need for a reliable quantitative assessment of the environmental, energetic and economic performance of biomass energetic crop production under the existing conditions in southern Europe.
Some of the results obtained demonstrate that the energy production applying biomass produced at local scale can reduce CO2 eq. emissions from 33.1% to 88% depending on the biomass typology and compared to non-renewable resources as gas natural or diesel.
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Ahmadi, Achachlouei Mohammad. "Exploring the Effects of ICT on Environmental Sustainability: From Life Cycle Assessment to Complex Systems Modeling." Doctoral thesis, KTH, Miljöstrategisk analys (fms), 2015. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-171443.
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The production and consumption of information and communication technology (ICT) products and services continue to grow worldwide. This trend is accompanied by a corresponding increase in electricity use by ICT, as well as direct environmental impacts of the technology. Yet a more complicated picture of ICT’s effects is emerging. Positive indirect effects on environmental sustainability can be seen in substitution and optimization (enabling effects), and negative indirect effects can be seen in additional demand due to efficiency improvements (rebound effects). A variety of methods can be employed to model and assess these direct and indirect effects of ICT on environmental sustainability. This doctoral thesis explores methods of modeling and assessing environmental effects of ICT, including electronic media. In a series of five studies, three methods were at times applied in case studies and at others analyzed theoretically. These methods include life cycle assessment (LCA) and complex systems modeling approaches, including System Dynamics (SD) and agent-based (AB) modeling. The first two studies employ the LCA approach in a case study of an ICT application, namely, the tablet edition of a Swedish design magazine. The use of tablets has skyrocketed in recent years, and this phenomenon has been little studied to date. Potential environmental impacts of the magazine’s tablet edition were assessed and compared with those of the print edition. The tablet edition’s emerging version (which is marked by a low number of readers and low reading time per copy) resulted in higher potential environmental impacts per reader than did the print edition. However, the mature tablet edition (with a higher number of readers and greater reading time per copy) yielded lower impacts per reader in half the ten impact categories assessed. While previous studies of electronic media have reported that the main life-cycle contributor to environmental impacts is the use phase (which includes operational electricity use as well as the manufacture of the electronic device), the present study did not support those findings in all scenarios studied in this thesis. Rather, this study found that the number of readers played an important role in determining which life-cycle phase had the greatest impacts. For the emerging version, with few readers, content production was the leading driver of environmental impacts. For the mature version, with a higher number of readers, electronic storage and distribution were the major contributors to environmental impacts. Only when there were many readers but low overall use of the tablet device was the use phase the main contributor to environmental impacts of the tablet edition of the magazine. The third study goes beyond direct effects at product- and service-level LCAs, revisiting an SD simulation study originally conducted in 2002 to model indirect environmental effects of ICT in 15 European countries for the period 2000-2020. In the current study, three scenarios of the 2002 study were validated in light of new empirical data from the period 2000–2012. A new scenario was developed to revisit the quantitative and qualitative results of the original study. The results showed, inter alia, that ICT has a stimulating influence on total passenger transport, for it makes it more cost- and time-efficient (rebound effects). The modeling mechanism used to represent this rebound effect is further investigated in the fourth study, which discusses the feedback loops used to model two types of rebound effects in passenger transport (direct economic rebound and time rebound). Finally, the role of systems thinking and modeling in conceptualizing and communicating the dynamics of rebound effects is examined. The aim of the fifth study was to explore the power of systems modeling and simulation to represent nonlinearities of the complex and dynamic systems examined elsewhere in this thesis. That study reviews previous studies that have compared the SD and AB approaches and models, summarizing their purpose, methodology, and results, based on certain criteria for choosing between SD and AB approaches. The transformation procedure used to develop an AB model for purposes of comparison with an SD model is also explored. In conclusion, first-order or direct environmental effects of ICT production, use, and disposal can be assessed employing an LCA method. This method can also be used to assess second-order or enabling effects by comparing ICT applications with conventional alternatives. However, the assessment of enabling effects can benefit from systems modeling methods, which are able to formally describe the drivers of change, as well as the dynamics of complex social, technical, and environmental systems associated with ICT applications. Such systems methods can also be used to model third-order or rebound effects of efficiency improvements by ICT.Den ökande produktionen och konsumtionen av produkter och tjänster inom informations- och kommunikationsteknik (IKT) leder till en ökning av den globala elanvändningen samt direkta miljökonsekvenser kopplade till IKT. Men IKT har även indirekta miljömässiga effekter. Dessa kan vara positiva till exempel genom substitutions- och optimeringseffekter eller negativa genom att till exempel ge upphov till ytterligare efterfrågan på grund av effektivisering (så kallade reboundeffekter). Olika metoder kan användas för att modellera och bedöma både direkta och indirekta effekter av IKT. Syftet med denna avhandling är att undersöka metoder för modellering samt att studera miljöeffekter av IKT och elektronisk media med hjälp av livscykelanalys (LCA) och även modellering av komplexa och dynamiska system, samt simuleringsteknik, så som System Dynamics (SD) och agentbaserad (AB) modellering. Avhandlingen omfattar fem artiklar (artikel I-V). Artikel I & II beskriver resultaten från en fallstudie där miljöeffekter kopplade till en svensk tidskrift studeras med LCA. Tidskriftens version för surfplatta samt motsvarande tryckta version studeras och jämförs. Artikel III går ett steg vidare från produktnivåns LCA. Artikeln återkopplar till en SD simuleringsstudie som ursprungligen genomfördes under 2002. Simuleringsstudien gällde framtida miljöeffekter av IKT i 15 europeiska länder med tidspespektivet 2000-2020. I artikeln valideras tre scenarier från simuleringsstudien med hjälp av nya empiriska data från 2000-2012 och ett nytt scenario modelleras. Kvantitativa och kvalitativa resultat från den ursprungliga studien diskuteras. Till exempel visar artikel III att IKT har en stimulerande effekt på den totala persontrafiken genom att göra den mer kostnads- och tidseffektiv (reboundeffekt). Modelleringsmekanismen som används för att representera denna reboundeffekt diskuteras vidare i artikel IV. Artikeln belyser och diskuterar den återkopplingsslinga (feedback-loop) som används för att modellera två typer av reboundeffekter kopplade till persontrafik (direkt ekonomisk rebound och tidsrelaterad rebound) samt jämför med en tidigare studie. Artikel IV behandlar också den roll systemtänkande och modellering kan spela i konceptualisering och kommunikation av reboundeffekters dynamik. För att ytterligare undersöka systemmodelleringens och simuleringens möjligheter att representera icke-linjära komplexa och dynamiska system (exempel på sådana diskuteras i artikel III och IV), sammanställer artikel V tidigare studier som jämför SD och AB-metoder och -modeller. Studiernas mål och metod summeras och resultaten med avseende på vilka kriterier som presenteras för att välja mellan SD och AB sammanställs. Även processen för att omvandla en befintlig SD-modell till en AB-modell beskrivs. Avhandlingens slutsats är att LCA och systemmodelleringsmetoder kan vara användbara för att studera IKTs direkta effekter så väl som indirekta effekter på miljön.
QC 20150813
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Ferrara, Nicola. "Atmospheric emissions profiles of geothermal energy production to minimise the environmental footprint: an innovative methodological investigation based on LCA approach." Doctoral thesis, Università di Siena, 2021. http://hdl.handle.net/11365/1126994.
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The fight against the climate change is the biggest challenge of the 21st century. The keyword in this context is “decarbonisation”: the development and management of an economic system with low Greenhouses Gases emissions. In this thesis, the environmental assessment of power generation technologies exploiting a renewable and environmentally friendly energy source, namely the geothermal energy, is presented. To evaluate the advantages and hot-spots of implementing such technologies the Life Cycle Assessment method was employed as the most powerful analytical tool for environmental sustainability analysis with a life cycle approach.
With this method, it is possible to investigate a system with a multi-criteria approach, not limited to climate change only, but overarching a wide portfolio of environmental impact categories and indicators such as acidification, use of fresh water and depletion of natural resources.
A rigorous scientific analysis should always be based on high-quality and robust data. Therefore, the atmospheric emissions of all the geothermal plants currently operating in Italy were carefully collected and analysed. In addition to direct emissions information, an extensive work to build the complete Life Cycle inventory of a state-of-the-art geothermal power plant.
From the methodological point of view, the application of the Life Cycle Assessment to geothermal power plants allowed to point out a critical aspect method itself. To this purpose, special relevance in this work is given to the results related to the toxicity issue because they are the ones that attract the most public opinion and at the same time are more uncertain and unreliable.
To improve the dissemination of LCA results and the diffusion of correct information, an essential step could be the implementation of methodological advances that facilitate the use LCA. In this work the development of simplified LCA models is presented and discussed in terms of the support that can provide both for decision-makers in their function, but also for experienced LCA practitioners.
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Alkhuder, Juma, and Mazen Alnabhani. "A comparative study of the materials of Villa Zero project using LCA." Thesis, Högskolan Dalarna, Institutionen för information och teknik, 2021. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:du-37773.
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In this thesis a future-world case was undertaken of the life cycle assessment (from cradleto grave) of a single-family house. The house is expected to be constructed by the end of2021 in Borlänge, a city located in Dalarna County. The aim of this study is to investigatewhether the building materials in external walls and roof surpass in terms ofenvironmental impacts compared with other building materials suggested by the authorsof this thesis.Six scenarios were evaluated in terms of the environmental impacts for two buildingelements, external wall, and roof. A base case scenario is taken into consideration foreach building element, considering the fact, that the thermal performance characteristicsof the building materials are comprehensively provided. Consequently, four scenarios aredetermined by the authors.One Click LCA program was used to calculate the environmental impacts of thebuilding materials through the lifecycle of the house during a time horizon of 50 years.Hemp fiber insulation material is planned to be used in the external walls; thus, it isconsidered the baseline case for this thesis. The first study is corresponded to the externalwalls, and it was found that glass wool insulation is more environmentally friendly thanhemp fiber and rock wool insulation.Wood material is planned to be used in the roof; thus, it is considered the baseline casefor this thesis. The second study is corresponded to the roof, and it was found that woodmaterial is more environmentally friendly than concrete and steel.Therefore, the suggested material by the authors surpasses the baseline case materialenvironmentally in respect of external walls, but this was not the case regarding the roof.
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Böhme, Florén Simon. "Solel och solvärme ur LCC-perspektiv för ett passiv-flerbostadshus." Thesis, Uppsala universitet, Institutionen för teknikvetenskaper, 2008. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-162430.
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This master’s degree project concerns the combination of a multi dwelling passive house with solar energy for the generation of electricity and domestic hot water (DHW). Different alternatives with either solar thermal systems or photovoltaic (PV) systems are compared with two reference alternatives producing DHW from electricity or district heating. The economical comparison uses a life cycle cost (LCC) perspective based on the present value of expenditures for investment, energy and annual operating and maintenance. The energy yields from the solar energy systems were calculated by hand and with simulation software. Calculation and dimensioning of PV systems were carried out with a software called PVSYST. Solar thermal systems were calculated by hand and with the software Winsun Villa Education. Both softwares use hourly weather data for the calculations. The LCCs are lower for the two reference alternatives than for the solar energy alternatives. The reference alternative with district heating generates the lowest LCC. The alternatives with solar thermal energy replace more energy and have significantly lower LCCs than the PV alternatives. The study also shows the importance of using cheap and environmentally friendly backup energy for producing DHW. When aiming for a quantitative energy use target, the DHW-circulation losses ought to be taken into account as these can be extensive.
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Robinson-Gayle, Syreeta. "Environmental impact and performance of transparent building envelope materials and systems." Thesis, Brunel University, 2003. http://bura.brunel.ac.uk/handle/2438/5445.
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Building envelopes are elements with a long lifetime, which provide a barrier between internal and external space and contribute to the internal environmental conditions provision. Their complex role ensures a large impact on the environmental and energy performance of a building and the occupant perception of a space. This study looks at the use of novel materials and processes to help reduce the environmental impact of buildings by improving facade and transparent roof design. There are three main strands to the work. First, novel building components, ETFE foil cushions were examined. Physical testing has shown that ETFE foil cushions compare favourably to double glazing in terms of thermal and daylighting performance which was also noted as one of the most likeable feature by occupants. Environmental impact analysis has indicated that ETFE foils can reduce the environmental impact of a building through reduced environmental burden of both the construction and operation of the building. Secondly, a cradle-to-gate Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) was carried out for float glass, which considered the environmental impacts of glass manufacture. The embodied energy was calculated to be 13.4 ± 0.5 GJ per tonne while the total number of eco-points 243 ± 11 per tonne. It is shown that float glass is comparable to the use of steel, and highly preferable to the use of aluminium as a cladding panel. Finally, a concept design tool (FACADE) was developed by defining a large number of office facade models and employing dynamic thermal, daylighting and environmental impact modelling to create a database which can be accessed through a user friendly interface application. A parametric analysis has indicated that using natural ventilation where possible can reduce the environmental impact of offices by up to 16%. Improving the standard of the facade and reducing the internal heat loads from lighting and equipment can reduce environmental impact up to 22%. This study makes a significant contribution to understanding the environmental impact of building envelope individual and integrated components.
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Olsson, Lovisa. "Faktorer som bör vägas in vid investering av solceller : Miljöanalys av de vanligaste solcellerna på marknaden." Thesis, Karlstads universitet, 2019. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kau:diva-74501.
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Four solar cells dominate the Swedish market today and are divided into two groups; first generation and second generation. The first generation involves of two silicone solar cells called mono-and multicrystalline solar cells. These solar cells were, as the name indicates, first on the market and today receive the highest efficiency. Due to high manufacturing costs, the second generation was developed which became thin film solar cells. The two most common solar cells in that generation are CdTe and CIGS, which account for about 20 percent of the solar cell market today while the first-generation accounts for the remaining 80 percent. Going towards a sustainable future it’s important and clear that both companies, cities and countries are ready meet the challenges. The solar cell technology has gained high confidence to bring in sustainable electricity production. Investors in Sweden experience the lack of a valuation concept from an environmental perspective between the solar cells on the Swedish market. The study has examined how the four different solar cells affect different environmental categories and which materials in the solar cells that are the most critical. By simulating the electricity production for a year with Gothenburg's solar radiation, the amount of electricity that could be used or sent to the grid was obtained. Where the silicon solar cells that have the highest efficiency also received the most electricity per square meter of solar cell. After producing electricity production and electricity consumption, the energy repayment period was calculated. Through LCA, 11 different environmental categories were developed to analyze different areas that are affected by solar cell production. Aquatic ecotoxicity of the marine environment was the environmental category that was most affected by the production for all four solar cell types. From the environmental category Global Warming, the amount of carbon dioxide equivalents was studied and then a payback time was calculated. Solar cells generally have three different phases; manufacture, operating and waste. The use phase is considered to be almost emission-free, the waste phase is relatively new for solar cell technologies. This is because no large waste streams have come than when the first major investments took place only in the nineties. The solar cells need different techniques depending on the type. The strategies should be different as different parts should be recycled and reused as far as possible. Due to the fact that there is unstable waste management, this phase has not been studied but only the manufacturing phase. A square metered solar cell was analyzed. For photovoltaic production in Europe, multicrystalline solar cell panels pay back the carbon dioxide equivalents after 11.5 years, while monocrystalline solar cell panels pay again after 14.3 years, ie after about half the life. CdTe paid the carbon dioxide equivalents fastest, after 2.2 years, and CIGS after 3.6 years. This means that the thin-film solar cells have the fastest time to get minus emissions. It is not justified to invest in solar cells manufactured in China when operating in Gothenburg, only after studying solar cell production. When the repayment period for carbon dioxide equivalents has been calculated, a Nordic electricity mix has been calculated with, depending on which electricity mix is chosen, it either gives reasons to not invest or to invest in solar cells. It is therefore important to be clear about what use the solar cells will have and which electricity is actually replaced before investors decide whether solar cells are the right energy source to invest in.
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McIntosh, Sean P. "Factors Impeding the Advancement of Straw Bale As a Feasible and Sustainable Construction Building Material in North America." University of Cincinnati / OhioLINK, 2011. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1305896657.
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Svensson, Michelle. "Life cycle assessment of the semidetached passive house "Röda lyktan" in northern Sweden : A comparison between the construction phase and the use phase." Thesis, Mittuniversitetet, Institutionen för teknik och hållbar utveckling, 2013. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:miun:diva-19559.
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This report is a life cycle assessment of a relatively newly built semidetached passive house/low energy house located in Östersund/Jämtland. The analysis concentrates on the building materials in the construction phase and the energy in the use phase for 50 years. The construction phase include frame, foundation, interior and exterior walls, ceiling and roof, middle floor structure, floor coverings, interior and exterior doors, windows, interior staircase with banisters, stove and FTX-ventilation system. The inventory to obtain the volume of each material has been made with the help of blueprints and interviews. The inventory of the use phase has been made using measurements from a parallel study by Itai Danielski of the energy use in the house (Danielski, Svensson & Fröling, 2013). The database Ecoinvent has been used to get a result for the volume and energy values. The inventory data is allocated and the characterization methods GWP, CED (cumulative energy demand) and USEtox are used. The aim of this study was to compare the construction phase with the use phase to see which phase that has the highest energy values and environmental impact. Another goal was to examine which materials in the construction phase that has the highest embodied energy and environmental impact. The result shows that in a comparison between the construction phase and the use phase, and when considering the parameters included in this study, the use phase has the highest values for global warming potentials (around 54 %), cumulative energy demand (around 80 %), ecotoxicity (around 56 %), human non-carcinogenic toxicity (around 77 %) and total human toxicity (around 75 %). The construction phase has the highest values for human carcinogenic toxicity (around 57 %). Even if the use phase has the highest values in most categories the construction phase also has high values. As buildings become more energy efficient and with increasing use of renewable energy, the construction phase becomes more important from an environmental perspective. This means that the material choices which are made in passive houses become increasingly important if passive houses should be considered to be environmentally friendly also in the future. The study also shows that the FTX-ventilation system, some of the insulation materials (with cellular plastic sheets and rock wool in top), metals (with sheet metal roofing of steel in top), glued laminated timber and wood fiber boards have some of the highest values of environmental impact and the highest embodied energy. These materials should in future buildings be considered, if possible, to be replaced with materials with less environmental impact.Den här rapporten är en livscykelanalys av ett relativt nybyggt passivhus/lågenergihus som också är ett parhus (ett hus delat i två separata lägenheter) beläget i Östersund/Jämtland. Analysen koncentrerar sig på byggnadsmaterialen i konstruktionsfasen och energin i användningsfasen under 50 år. Konstruktionsfasen inkluderar stomme, grund, inner- och ytterväggar, inner- och yttertak, mellanbjälklag, golvbeklädnader, inner- och ytterdörrar, fönster, invändig trappa med trappräcke, kamin och FTX-ventilationssystem. Inventeringen för att få fram volymen på varje material har gjorts med hjälp av ritningar och intervjuer. Inventeringen av användningsfasen har gjorts med hjälp av mätvärden från en parallell studie av Itai Danielski på energianvändningen i huset (Danielski, Svensson & Fröling, 2013). Databasen Ecoinvent har sedan använts för att få fram ett resultat för volym- och energivärdena. Inventeringsdatan är allokerad och karaktäriseringsmetoderna GWP (globalt uppvärmingspotential), CED (kumulativt energibehov) och USEtox (toxicitet) har använts. Målet med studien är att jämföra konstruktionsfasen med användningsfasen för att kunna se vilken fas som har högst energivärden och miljöpåverkan. Målet är också att undersöka vilka material i konstruktionsfasen som har högst förkroppsligad energi och miljöpåverkan, i syftet att eventuellt kunna byta ut vissa material till miljövänligare alternativ, för att få ett miljövänligare hus i framtida liknande byggnationer. Resultaten visar att i en jämförelse mellan konstruktionsfasen och användningsfasen, och med hänsyn till de parametrar som ingår i studien, att användningsfasen har de högsta värdena för globalt uppvämingspotential (runt 54 %), kumulativt energibehov (runt 80 %), ekotoxicitet (runt 56 %), human icke-cancerogen toxicitet (runt 77 %) och total human toxicitet (runt 75 %). Konstruktionsfasen har högst värden för human cancerogen toxicitet (runt 57 %). Även om användningsfasen har högst värden i de flesta kategorierna så har även konstruktionsfasen höga värden. Ju mer energieffektiva husen blir och med en ökad användning av energi från förnyelsebara källor, desto viktigare blir konstruktionsfasen ur ett miljöperspektiv. Det betyder att materialvalen som görs i huset blir väldigt viktiga om passivhus ska fortsätta anses som miljövänliga även i framtiden. Denna studie visar också att FTX-ventilationssystemet, några av isoleringsmaterialen (med cellplasten och stenullen i topp), metallerna (med plåttaket av stål i topp), limträbalkar och träfiberskivor har några av de högsta värdena av miljöpåverkan och den högsta förkroppsligade energin. Dessa material borde i framtida byggnationer övervägas att om möjligt ersättas med andra material med mindre miljöpåverkan.
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Davidsson, Simon. "Natural resources and sustainable energy : Growth rates and resource flows for low-carbon systems." Doctoral thesis, Uppsala universitet, Naturresurser och hållbar utveckling, 2016. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-301930.
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Large-scale deployment of low-carbon energy technologies is important for counteracting anthropogenic climate change and achieving universal energy access. This thesis explores potential growth rates of technologies necessary to reach a more sustainable global energy system, the material and energy flows required to commission these technologies, and potential future availability of the required resources. These issues are investigated in five papers. Potential future growth rates of wind energy and solar photovoltaics, and the associated material requirements are explored, taking the expected service life of these technologies into account. Methodology for assessing net energy return and natural resource use for wind energy systems are analyzed. Potential future availability of lithium and phosphate rock are also investigated. Estimates of energy and materials required for technologies such as wind energy and photovoltaics vary, and depend on the assumptions made and methods used. Still, it is clear that commissioning of low-carbon technologies on the scale required to reach and sustain a low-carbon energy system in coming decades requires significant quantities of both bulk materials and scarcer resources. For some technologies, such as thin film solar cells and electric vehicles with lithium-ion batteries, availability of materials could become an issue for potential growth rates. Future phosphate rock production could become highly dependent on few countries, and potential political, social and environmental aspects of this should be investigated in more detail. Material and energy flows should be considered when analyzing growth rates of low-carbon technologies. Their estimated service life can indicate sustainable growth rates of technologies, as well as when materials are available for end-of-life recycling. Resource constrained growth curve models can be used to explore future production of natural resources. A higher disaggregation of these models can enable more detailed analysis of potential constraints. This thesis contributes to the discussion on how to create a more sustainable global energy system, but the methods to assess current and future energy and material flows, and availability of natural resources, should be further developed in the future.
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Lennermark, Desirée, Victoria Bjellerup, Lisa Bäckström, and Lisen Wedman. "Demolish or Refurbish an Existing Building? : A bachelor thesis on the climate impact of different methods of renewing a building." Thesis, Uppsala universitet, Institutionen för samhällsbyggnad och industriell teknik, 2020. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-412278.
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The purpose of this bachelor thesis is to evaluate different alternatives of renewal regarding an already existing building. The case study building is located in the Ulleråker area in Uppsala, Sweden and is an old mental hospital building from the 1950’s which Uppsala Municipality wishes to restore as part of a bigger investment in the neighborhood. The different alternatives that will be investigated are refurbishment, with different insulation thickness, and a complete demolition and reconstruction of a new building with either wood or concrete. Carbon dioxide emissions connected to buildings will be calculated and analyzed as two elements, one being embodied carbon dioxide, and one being energy usage. Other aspects of interest, the economy and cultural values of the area, will be discussed. To estimate the amount of CO2 emissions, several life cycle assessments will be executed through the software One Click LCA (2015). Calculations will be done by hand in order to estimate the energy usage. Information and data are partly obtained from Uppsala Municipality, partly from literature and available resources. The results show that each option has a different advantage, the refurbishment resulting in considerably lower embodied carbon (114 kg CO2e/m2) but higher energy usage (95 kWh/m2 per year) as compared to the new concrete construction with larger amount of embodied carbon (279 kg CO2e/m2) but lower energy usage (44 kWh/m2 per year). This leads to a conclusion showing that a deep refurbishment is the best option regarding both embodied carbon and energy usage.
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Bondesson, Anna. "Comparative LCA model on renewable power solutions for off-grid radio base stations." Thesis, KTH, Industriell ekologi, 2010. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-53247.
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Globally, there are approximately 900 000 telecommunication radio base station sites (RBS-sites)located in areas without access to the electrical grid. Traditionally, these sites are powered by dieselgenerators, consuming large amounts of fossil diesel fuel. Diesel combustion is connected both toenvironmental impacts and high economical expenses for the mobile operators. As the mobilenetwork expansion is increasingly located in off-grid areas of developing countries, the search forrenewable power alternatives has been intensified. This Master thesis presents results from a life cycle assessment (LCA) of photovoltaic and windturbine hybrid power configurations for off-grid RBS-sites. The LCA covers environmental impactsfrom all life cycle activities of the hybrid system: from raw material extraction, manufacturing, andtransportation, to on-site usage, and disposal. To enable assessment of variable hybrid configurations, four scalable sub-models were constructed:one diesel sub-model including the generator and yearly diesel consumption, one back-up batterysub-model, one PV module sub-model and one wind turbine sub-model. Included in the sub-modelswere required site equipment; e.g. foundations for generators, PV modules and battery banks, powerconverters, fuel tanks and possible housings. The number of generators, liters of fuel consumed peryear, number of battery cells, square meters of PV module and number of wind turbines were set asvariables. Hereby RBS-sites with different capacities and availability of renewable source could bemodeled. A hybrid configuration including 21 square meters photovoltaic modules, one wind turbine, a storageof 36 (12 V) batteries and one generator back-up consuming 1500 liters of diesel fuel per year wasevaluated. The hybrid site represents between 11 and 16 percent of the different environmentalimpact potentials, global warming potential specifically representing 13 percent, caused by acorresponding traditional diesel site consuming 20000 liters of fuel per year. The most importantparameters influencing the environmental performance of the renewable hybrid site following thediesel fuel production and combustion are the production energy mix and energy intensive processesincluding the up-stream silicon and lead processing. The thesis confirmed great environmental benefits of using wind and solar power at RBS-sites. Theadditional gain of applying wind power when feasible to decrease the PV module area or batterycapacity required was also demonstrated. The great importance of manufacturing location andelectricity mix should encourage Ericsson to map supplier manufacturing locations, searchingpossibilities to decrease the environmental impacts from the manufacturing phase of the differentsub-systems.Idag finns det omkring 5 miljoner radiobasstationer i det i det globala telekomnätet, varav 900000 ärbelägna i områden utan tillgång till elektricitet. Traditionellt drivs dessa stationer av dieselgeneratorersom konsumerar stora mängder diesel. Dieselförbränningen bidrar både till lokala och globalamiljöeffekter samt höga driftkostnader för mobiloperatörerna. Expansionen av mobilnätet sker i alltstörre utsträckning i områden i utvecklingsländer utan elförsörjning, vilket har ökat intresset föralternativa kraftkällor. Inom examensarbetet har ett redskap för jämförande livscykelanalys (LCA) av förnyelsebara krafthybridlösningarför radiobasstationer utvecklats. Hybriderna kombinerar solceller och vindturbinermed dieselförbränning och batterier. Genom att använda LCA inkluderas miljöeffekter från alla steg i hybridsystemets livscykel; frånutvinning av råmaterial och tillverkning av sub-system, transport, användning på RBS-siten till denslutliga avvecklingen. För att kunna utvärdera olika hybridkonfigurationer skapades 4 olika delmodeller: en delmodell fördieselförbränning innefattande generator och dieselkonsumption, en batteri-delmodell, en PVdelmodellsamt en vindturbin-delmodell. Delmodellerna inkluderar även nödvändiga komponentersom betonggrund till generatorer, PV-modulerna och batteribanken. Antal dieselgeneratorer,battericeller, vindturbiner samt PV-moduler och liter dieselkonsumption kan varieras för att simuleraen specifik anläggning. En hybridlösning med 21 m2 solceller, en vindturbin, 36 stycken (12V) battericeller och endieselgenerator som konsumerar 1500 liter diesel per år analyserades. Hybridlösningen ger upphovtill miljöeffekter motsvarande mellan 11 och 16 procent, global uppvärmning motsvarande 13procent, av miljöeffekterna orsakade av en traditionell dieselkonfiguration som konsumerar omkring20000 liter diesel per år. Betydelsefulla parametrar som påverkar miljöeffekterna frånhybridlösningen förutom produktion och förbränning av diesel är vilken elektricitetsmix somanvänds vid tillverkning av de olika komponenterna och energiintensiva processer som kisel- ochblyframställning. Resultaten tydliggör de stora minskningar av miljöeffekterna som en övergång från dieselförbränningtill sol- och vindkraft på RBS-anläggningar kan ge. Den relativa förbättringen av att installeravindturbiner för att minimera mängden sol- och battericeller har även visats. Betydelsen avproduktionsplats och elektricitetsmix för den totala miljöpåverkan bör motivera Ericsson attkartlägga och välja tillverkare som innebär ett litet bidrag till de totala miljöeffekterna.
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Celik, Ilke. "Eco-design of Emerging Photovoltaic (PV) Cells." University of Toledo / OhioLINK, 2018. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=toledo1533123980079904.
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Kindesjö, Viktoria, and Linda Nordqvist. "Energirenovering av flerbostadshus från miljonprogrammet genom LCC-optimering : En fallstudie av två byggnader i Linköping, Sverige." Thesis, Linköpings universitet, Energisystem, 2019. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:liu:diva-158098.
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The content of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere is increasing resulting in climate change and efforts to stop the negative trend need to be intensified. The energy use in the Swedish residential and service sector constitutes 40 % of the total energy use of 378 TWh in the country. Nationally there is a target to reduce the energy use per heated area with 20 % to 2020 and 50 % to 2050. Energy renovation of buildings from the Million Programme is foreseen to be able to contribute to achieving the targets owing to the large building stock and energy efficiency potential. In the master thesis cost optimal energy renovation strategies are investigated for two multi-family buildings in Linkoping built during the Million Programme, one with an unheated attic and one with a heated attic. The thesis is carried out by using life-cycle cost optimisation (LCC-optimisation) by utilising the software OPERA-MILP, developed at Linkoping University. The aim of the thesis is to obtain the energy renovation strategy that is optimal from an LCC-perspective and to investigate the energy reduction and LCC. Optimal energy renovation strategies are also investigated for energy renovation to levels of the Energy Classes of the National Board of Housing, Building and Planning in Sweden and the stricter limits for nearly zero-energy buildings (NZEB) that will likely come into force in 2021. Greenhouse gas emissions and primary energy use are also investigated for the different cases with the purpose of putting energy renovation in relation to climate impact. Local environmental factors are used for district heating while electricity is assigned values based on the Nordic electricity mix and Nordic marginal electricity respectively. The current LCC and annual energy use is 2 945 kSEK and 133 MWh for the building with an unheated attic and 3 511 kSEK and 162 MWh for the building with a heated attic. The result shows that LCC can be reduced by approximately 70 kSEK and 90 kSEK respectively. The optimal solution constitutes of a window change from windows with U=3,0 W/m2°C to windows with U=1,5 W/m2°C and results in a reduction of the energy use by 13 % and 15 % respectively. LCC increases with 240 kSEK for the building with unheated attic and decreases with 18 kSEK for the other building when Energy Class D is reached. Energy Class C is attained through an increase in LCC by 300 – 590 kSEK and Energy Class B through an increase by 1610 – 1800 kSEK. It is not possible to reach Energy Class A or the future requirements for NZEB (55 kWh/m2Aheated) with the energy renovation measures that are implemented in OPERA-MILP. The largest energy reduction that can be attained is approximately 60 %. The most cost optimal insulation measure is additional insulation of the attic floor/pitched roof followed by additional insulation of the ground concrete slab. It was shown to be more cost efficient to change to windows with U=1,5 W/m2°C in combination with additional insulation compared to changing to windows with better energy performance. For greater energy savings additional insulation on the inside of the external wall is applied, while insulation on the outside of the external wall is never cost optimal. To reach Energy Class B installation of HRV is required which gives a large increase in cost. Less extensive energy renovation is needed to reach the energy classes for the building with heated attic compared to the building with unheated attic. The annual use of primary energy in the reference case is 22 MWh for the building with an unheated attic and 26 MWh for the building with a heated attic. The emissions of greenhouse gases are 18 tonnes CO2e and 22 tonnes CO2e per year respectively when the emission factor of the Nordic electricity mix is applied and 20 tonnes CO2e and 25 tonnes CO2e respectively when the Nordic marginal electricity is applied. The yearly primary energy use can be reduced with up to 7 MWh through energy renovation. When the energy renovation leads to an increase in electricity use the primary energy can however increase with up to 12 MWh. The yearly greenhouse gas emissions can be decreased with up to 14 tonnes CO2e. When Nordic marginal electricity is applied to estimate the emissions of greenhouse gases for an energy renovation strategy that leads to an increase in electricity use the result is less beneficial from a climate perspective compared to when Nordic electricity mix is applied.
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Melén, Cecilia, and Mirea Wolff. "Consumption of sustainable food products : A study of the Sustainable purchase perception matrix and Sustainable lead consumers; A life cycle assessment of BäR smoothie." Thesis, Uppsala universitet, Institutionen för geovetenskaper, 2021. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-435079.
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Part 1 The scientific community has identified an attitude-action gap for demographic and psychographic variables when studying sustainable purchase behaviour. By focusing on what happens during the purchase instead of the purchaser, this cross-sectional study aims to understand sustainable purchase behaviour when consumers purchase sustainable food. The scope of this study focused on the consumer’s perceived degree of Confidence and Com- promise when purchasing sustainable food products as suggested by Peattie in the Green purchase perception matrix. However, since the study included environmental and social responsibility, we renamed the matrix to the Sustainable purchase perception matrix. The focus was also on a new construct created in this study called the Sustainable lead consumer. The degree of Confidence was measured through the consumer’s own belief in the ability to have a positive sustainability impact, i.e. Perceived consumer effectiveness (PCE) and the consumer’s domain-specific sustainability interests. The degree of Compromise was measured through the consumer’s Willingness to pay (WTP) for certain sustainability attributes. The data was collected through a questionnaire (N=436), and the result showed that the correlation between consumers’ WTP and PCE was weak, positive and significant within the sustainability interests Organic food, Animal welfare and Natural resources. As mentioned, Confidence and Compromise was examined through the variables PCE, sustainability interests and WTP. To reveal if the consumers experienced other variables within Confidence and Compromise a thematic analysis of consumers’ perceived scepticism towards sustainability marketing was conducted. The result identified 15 themes that could be associated with the variable Confidence and 17 themes that could be associated with the variable Compromise. By creating a new construct, the Sustainable lead consumer, the study identified a consumer who was considered ahead of the sustainability trend and benefited greatly from solutions in this trend. The correlation between WTP and domain-specific sustainability interests for Sustainable lead consumers was non-significant but strong (n=377). When comparingSustainable lead consumers’ WTP to the remaining population, the Wilcoxon rank-sum test showed no significant evidence that the Sustainable lead consumers had a higher WTP for their domain-specific sustainability interests. A potential attitude-action gap among the Sustainable lead consumers was examined by evaluating if a high degree of Confidence and Compromise led to actual sustainable purchase behaviour. The analysis showed that only a small proportion of Sustainable lead consumers with a high degree of PCE and WTP had an actual sustainable purchase behaviour. This was likely due to the existing attitude-action gap where the consumers’ attitude is not reflected in their actual behaviour. Part 2 Food production and consumption have a major impact on the environment, primarily from agriculture, but also from the processing of food, transportation and waste management. Increased environmental awareness among consumers has led to a demand for transparency in the food production chain and thus an increased demand for knowledge about food’s environmental impact. By studying the environmental impact of the product BäR smoothie from the Finnish company Toripiha, this study aims to identify environmental hotspots in the product’s production chain. A life cycle assessment (LCA) was conducted in accordance with the ISO standards ISO 14040 and ISO 14044, to investigate the environmental impact of a bottle of BäR smoothie á 250 ml. The LCA was attributional, meaning that it aims to depict the product’s environmental impact over its life cycle. The environmental impact categories global warming, eutrophication and primary energy use were included, and measured with the impact category indicators carbon dioxide equivalents (CO2-eq), phosphate equivalents (PO4-eq) and megajoule (MJ). Inventory data were collected mainly from the database Ecoinvent version 3.7, but also from scientific articles and previous studies, as well as the calculation tool NTMCalc Basic 4.0. The results of this study highlight the parts of the production chain of BÄR smoothie that have the most significant environmental impact concerning the chosen impact categories. A bottle of BäR smoothie á 250 ml contributed to a total of 120 g CO2-eq, 0.39 g PO4-eq and 2.8 MJ. The smoothie bottle, i.e. the production of the virgin bottle grade PET granulate (vPET) and recycled bottle grade PET granulate (rPET), had the largest impact on global warming and primary energy use of all the components, and also had a significant impact on eutrophication. As most of this contribution comes from the production of vPET granulate, Toripiha was advised to purchase bottles that have a higher content of rPET granulate to decrease the smoothie’s environmental impact. It was also evident that the transportation of components was a significant contributor to global warming, eutrophication and primary energy use. Since transportation had such an impact on the result, Toripiha needs to strive towards short and efficient transport of the different components to reduce the environmental impact from transportation.Del 1 Forskare inom hållbart konsumtionsbeteende har identifierat en diskrepans mellan attityd och beteende för demografiska och psykografiska variabler. Genom att studera vad som händer hos konsumenten under ett köp, i stället för tidigare nämnda variabler, vill denna tvärsnittsstudie identifiera vad som driver hållbart konsumtionsbeteende av livsmedel. Denna studie fokuserade på konsumenters upplevda nivå av Confidence och Compromise vid köp av hållbar mat så som föreslås av Peattie’s Green purchase perception matrix. Dock så användes matrisen till att studera både miljömässig och social hållbarhet och döptes således om till Sustainable purchase perception matrix. Studien undersökte även ett nytt koncept som skapades i detta examensarbete, nämligen Sustainable lead consumer adapterat från Von Hippel’s Lead user. Graden av Confidence mättes genom att studera konsumentens tro på den egna förmågan att ha en positiv hållbarhetspåverkan, dvs. Percieved consumer effectiveness (PCE), samt domän-specifika hållbarhetsintressen. Graden av Compromise mättes genom konsumentens villighet att kompromissa genom att betala för olika hållbarhetsattribut, även kallat Willingness to pay (WTP). Data samlades in genom en enkät (N=436), och resultatet visade att det fanns en svag, positiv och signifikant korrelation mellan PCE och WTP inom hållbarhetsintressena Ekologisk mat, Djurvälfärd och Naturresurser. Vidare utfördes en tematisk analys av kvalitativ data för att studera vilka andra variabler än hållbarhetsintressen, WTP och PCE som påverkade variablerna Confidence och Compromise. Detta resulterade i 15 teman som kunde relateras till Confidence och 17 teman till Compromise. Genom att skapa ett nytt koncept, Sustainable lead consumer, identifierade denna studie en konsument som ansågs vara i framkant av hållbarhetstrenden och som drog stora fördelar av denna trend. Korrelationen mellan WTP och Sustainable lead consumer’s var stark men ej signifikant (n=377). När dessa konsumenter jämfördes med resterande population, visade Wilcoxon rank-sum test inga signifikanta bevis på att Sustainable lead consumer’s hade ett högre WTP än resterande population. Huruvida en attityd och beteende diskrepans existerade för Sustainhable lead consumers studerades genom att se om en hög grad av Confidence och Compromise ledde till en högre av hållbar konsumtionsbeteende. Analysen visade att det endast var en liten andel av Sustainable lead consumers med ett högt PCE och WTP som också hade ett hållbart konsumtionsbeteende. Detta beror troligen på diskrepansen mellan attityd och beteende där konsumenternas attityd inte reflekteras i deras faktiska konsumtionsbeteenden. Del 2 Produktion och konsumtion av livsmedel har en stor påverkan på miljön, primärt från jordbruket men även genom behandling av livsmedel, transporter och avfallshantering. En ökad medvetenhet hos konsumenter har resulterat i en ökad efterfrågan av transparens i produktionskedjan av livsmedel, och därmed ett ökat behov av kunskap gällande olika livsmedels miljöpåverkan. Genom att studera miljöpåverkan från produkten BäR smoothie från det finska företaget Toripiha är syftet med denna studie att identifiera delar i produktens produktionskedja som har en betydande miljöpåverkan, så kallade hotspots. För att studera miljöpåverkan från en flaska BäR smoothie á 250 ml utfördes en livscykelanalys (LCA) i enlighet med ISO-standarderna ISO 14040 och ISO 14044. Närmare bestämt utfördes en bokförings-LCA, vilket innebär att miljöpåverkan studeras utifrån produktens livscykel. De miljöpåverkanskategorier som inkluderades i studien var global uppvärmning, övergödning och primärenergianvändning, som mättes med kategoriindikatorerna koldioxidekvivalenter (CO2-ekv), fosfatekvivalenter (PO4-ekv) och megajoule (MJ). Den inventeringsdata som användes hämtades främst från databasen Ecoinvent version 3.7, men även från vetenskapliga artiklar och tidigare studier, samt från beräkningsverktyget NTMCalc Basic 4.0. Resultaten av denna studie belyser de delar i produktionskedjan för BÄR smoothie som har störst miljöpåverkan med avseende de valda miljöpåverkanskategorierna. En flaska BäR smoothie á 250 ml bidrog totalt med 120 g CO2-ekv, 0,39 g PO4-ekv och 2,8 MJ. Den komponent med störst miljöpåverkan med avseende på global uppvärmning och primär energianvändning och som även hade en betydande inverkan på övergödning var flaskan, dvs. produktion av PET-granulat (vPET) och återvunnen PET-granulat (rPET). Eftersom majoriteten av detta bidrag kom från produktionen av vPET-granulat, rekommenderades Toripiha att använda flaskor som har ett högre innehåll av rPET-granulat för att minska produktens totala miljöpåverkan. Det var också tydligt att transporten av komponenter stod för en betydande del av miljöpåverkan med avseende på samtliga miljöpåverkanskategorier. För att minska miljöpåverkan från transporter bör Toripiha därför sträva efter kortare och mer effektiva transporter för de olika komponenterna.
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Petersen, Abdul Muhaymin. "Comparisons of the technical, financial risk and life cycle assessments of various processing options of sugercane bagasse to biofuels in South Africa." Thesis, Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/20156.
Full textAbstract:
Thesis (MScEng)--Stellenbosch University, 2012ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Through many years of research, a number of production schemes have been developed for converting lignocellulosic biomass into transport fuels. These technologies have been assessed through a number of techno-economic studies for application in a particular context in terms of the technical and economic feasibility. However, previous studies using these methods have tended to lack vigour in various aspects. Either the energy efficiency of the processes were not maximised through adequate heat integration, or a competing technology which existed was not considered. From an economic perspective, the financial models would often lack the vigour to account for the risk and uncertainty that is inherent in the market prices of the commodities. This phenomenon is especially relevant for the biofuel industry that faces the full fledge of uncertainties experienced by the agricultural sector and the energy sector. Furthermore, from an environmental perspective, the techno-economic studies had often ignored the environmental impacts that are associated with biofuel production. Thus, a comparative study could have favoured an option due to its economic feasibility, while it could have had serious environmental consequences. The aim of this study was to address these issues in a South African context, where biofuels could be produced from sugarcane bagasse. The first step would be to modify an existing simulation model for a bioethanol scenario that operates with a Separate Hydrolysis and Fermentation (SHF process) configuration into a second processing scenario that operates with a Simultaneous Saccharification and Fermentation (SSF process) configuration using reliable experimental data. The second step was to ensure that the maximum energy efficiency of each scenario was realised by carrying out pinch point analysis as a heat integration step. In contrast to these biological models is the thermochemical model that converts bagasse to gasoline and diesel via gasification, Fischer-Tropsch synthesis and refining (GFT process). While there were no significant advances in technology concerning this type of process, the energy efficiency was to be maximised with pinch point analysis. The GFT process obtained the highest energy efficiency of 50.6%. Without the affects of pinch point technology, the efficiency dropped to 46%, which thus emphasises the importance of heat integration. The SSF had an efficiency of 42.8%, which was superior to that of the SHF at 39.3%. This resulted from a higher conversion of biomass to ethanol in the SSF scenario. Comparing the SHF model to an identical model found in literature that did not have pinch point retrofits, this study showed lower efficiency. This arose because the previous study did not account for the energy demands of the cold utility systems such as the cooling tower operation, which has been shown in this study to account for 40% of the electrical energy needs. The economic viability of all three processes was assessed with Monte Carlo Simulations to account for the risks that the fluctuations in commodity prices and financial indices pose. This was accomplished by projecting the fluctuations of these parameters from samples of a historical database that has been transformed into a probability distribution function. The consequences were measured in terms of the Net Present Value (NPV) and Internal Rate of Return (IRR) for a large number of simulations. The results of these variables were aggregated and were then assessed by testing the probability that the NPV<0, and that the IRR recedes below the interest rate of 12.64%. The investment was thus deemed unfeasible if these probabilities were greater than 20%. Both biological models were deemed profitable in terms of this standard. The probabilities were 13% for the SSF and 14% for the SHF. The GFT process however was deemed completely unfeasible because the probability that the NPV<0 was 78%. Given that the GFT process had the highest energy efficiency, this result arises mainly because the capital investment of 140,000USD/MWHHV of biomass energy input is to enormous for any payback to be expected. The environmental footprint of each process was measured using Life Cycle Assessments (LCAs). LCAs are a scientifically intricate way of quantifying and qualifying the effects of a product or process within a specified boundary. The impacts are assessed on a range of environmental issues, such as Global Warming, Acidification, Eutrophication and Human toxicity. Furthermore, if the project under concern has multiple output products, then the impacts are distributed between the output products in proportion to the revenue that each generates. The impacts were either relative to the flow of feedstock, which was 600MW of bagasse, or to the functional unit, which was the amount of fuel required to power a standard vehicle for a distance of 1 kilometre. In either case, the GFT scenario was the least burdening on the environmental. This was expected because the GFT process had the highest energy efficiency and the process itself lacked the use of processing chemicals. Relative to the feedstock flow, the SSF was the most environmentally burdening scenario due to the intensive use of processing chemicals. Relative to the functional unit, the SHF was the most severe due to its low energy efficiency. Thus, the following conclusions were drawn from the study: The GFT is the most energy and environmentally efficient process, but it showed no sign of economic feasibility. iv There is no significant difference in the economic and environmental evaluation of the SSF and SHF process, even though the SSF is considered to be a newer and more efficient process. The major cause of this is because the setup of the SSF model was not optimised.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Deur baie jare van navorsing is ‘n aantal produksie-skemas vir die omskakeling van lignosellulose biomassa na vloeibarebrandstof ontwikkel. Hierdie tegnologië is geassesseer ten opsigte van die tegniese en ekonomiese haalbaarheid deur middel van tegno-ekonomiese studies in bepaalde tekste. Tog het hierdie vorige studies besliste beperkings gehad. Of die energie-doeltreffendheid van die proses is nie gemaksimeer deur voldoende hitte-integrasie nie, of 'n mededingende tegnologie wat bestaan is nie oorweeg nie. Vanuit 'n ekonomiese perspektief, was die finansiële modelle dikwels nie die omvattend genoeg om rekening te hou met die risiko en onsekerheid wat inherent is in die markpryse van die kommoditeite nie. Hierdie verskynsel is veral relevant vir die biobrandstof bedryf wat die volle omvang van onsekerhede ervaar waaraan die landbousektor en die energiesektoronderhewig is. Verder het die tegno-ekonomiese studies dikwels die omgewingsimpakte wat verband hou met biobrandstofproduksie geïgnoreer. Dus kon ‘n opsie deur die ekonomiese haalbaarheid bevoordeel word, ten spyte van die ernstige omgewingsimpakte wat dit kon inhou. Die doel van hierdie studie was om hierdie kwessies aan te spreek in 'n Suid-Afrikaanse konteks, waar biobrandstof uit suikerriet bagasse geproduseer kan word. Die eerste stap was om 'n bestaande simulasiemodel vir 'n bio-scenario wat met Afsonderlike Hidroliese en Fermentasie (SHF proses) stappe werk, te modifiseer vir 'n tweede verwerking scenario wat met 'n gelyktydige Versuikering en Fermentasie (SSF proses) konfigurasie werk. Die verandering is gedoen deur die gebruik van betroubare eksperimentele data. Die tweede stap was om te verseker dat elke scenario die maksimum energie-doeltreffendheid het, deur 'n hitte-integrasie stap, wat gebruik maak van “pinch-point” analise. In teenstelling met hierdie biologiese modelle, is daar die thermochemiese roete waar petrol en diesel van bagasse vervaardig word via vergassing, Fischer-Tropsch-sintese en rafinering (GFT proses). Daar was geen betekenisvolle vooruitgang in tegnologie vir hierdie proses nie, maar die energie-doeltreffendheid is gemaksimeer word deur energie-integrasie. Die GFT proses toon die hoogste energie-doeltreffendheid van 50,6%. Sonder die invloed van energie-integrasie het die doeltreffendheid gedaal tot 46%, wat dus die belangrikheid van hitte-integrasie beklemtoon. Die SSF het 'n effektiwiteit van 42,8% gehad, wat beter was as dié 39,3% van die SHF opsie. Hierdie hoër effektiwiteit wasas gevolg van die hoër omskakeling van biomassa na etanol in die SSF scenario. Die energie doeltreffendheid vir die SHF-model was laer as met 'n identiese model (sonder energie-integrasie) wat in die literatuur gevind wat is. Dit het ontstaan omdat die vorige studie nie 'n volledig voorsiening gemaak het met die energie-eise van die verkillingstelselsnie, wat tot 40% van die elektriese energie behoeftes kan uitmaak. Die ekonomiese lewensvatbaarheid van al drie prosesse is bepaal met Monte Carlo simulasies om die risiko's wat die fluktuasies in kommoditeitspryse en finansiële indekse inhou, in berekening te bring. Hierdie is bereik deur die projeksie van die fluktuasies van hierdie parameters aan die hand van 'n historiese databasis wat omskep is in 'n waarskynlikheid verspreiding funksie. Die gevolge is gemeet in terme van die netto huidige waarde (NHW) en Interne Opbrengskoers (IOK) vir 'n groot aantal simulasies. Die resultate van hierdie veranderlikes is saamgevoeg en daarna, deur die toets van die waarskynlikheid dat die NPV <0, en dat die IRR laer as die rentekoers van 12,64% daal, beoordeel. Die belegging is dus nie realiseerbaar geag as die waarskynlikhede meer as 20% was nie. Beide biologieseprosesse kan as winsgewend beskou word in terme van bostaande norme. Die waarskynlikhede was 13% vir die SSF en 14% vir die SHF. Aangesien die NHW van die GFT-proses onder 0 met ‘n waarskynlikheid van 78% is, is die opsie as nie-winsgewend beskou. Gegewe dat die GFT-proses die hoogste energie-doeltreffendheid het, is die resultaat hoofsaaklik omdat die kapitale belegging van 140,000 USD / MWHHV-biomassa energie-inset te groot is, om enige terugbetaling te verwag. Die omgewingsvoetspoor van elke proses is bepaal deur die gebruik van Lewens Siklus Analises (“Life Cycle Assessments”) (LCAS). LCAS is 'n wetenskaplike metodeom die effek van ‘n produk of proses binne bepaalde grense beide kwalitatief en kwantitatief te bepaal. Die impakte word beoordeel vir 'n verskeidenheid van omgewingskwessies, soos aardverwarming, versuring, eutrofikasie en menslike toksisiteit. Voorts, indien die projek onder die saak verskeie afvoer produkte het, word die impakte tussen die afvoer produkte verdeel, in verhouding tot die inkomste wat elkeen genereer. Die impak was met of relatief tot die vloei van roumateriaal (600MW van bagasse), of tot die funksionele eenheid, wat die hoeveelheid van brandstof is om 'n standaard voertuig aan te dryf oor 'n afstand van 1 kilometer. In al die gevalle het die GFT scenario die laagste belading op die omgewing geplaas. Hierdie is te verwagte omdat die GFT proses die hoogste energie-doeltreffendheid het en die proses self nie enige addisionele chemikalieë vereis nie. Relatief tot die roumateriaal vloei, het die SSF die grootse belading op die omgewing geplaas as gevolg van die intensiewe gebruik van verwerkte chemikalieë. Relatief tot die funksionele eenheid, was die SHF die swakste as gevolg van sy lae energie-doeltreffendheid.
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Williams, Helén. "Food Packaging for Sustainable Development." Doctoral thesis, Karlstads universitet, Avdelningen för energi-, miljö- och byggteknik, 2011. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kau:diva-7328.
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Packaging has been on the environmental agenda for decades. It has been discussed and debated within the society mainly as an environmental problem. Production, distribution and consumption of food and drinks contribute significant to the environmental impact. However, consumers in the EU waste about 20% of the food they buy. The function of packaging in reducing the amount of food losses is an important but often neglected environmental issue. This thesis focuses on the functions of packaging that can be used to preserve resources efficiently and reduce the environmental impact of the food-packaging system. The service perspective is used to increase knowledge about consumer interaction with packages. Fifteen packaging attributes, for example, ‘easy to empty’, ‘hygienic’ and ‘contain the right quantity’, were identified as influencing the amount of food losses at the consumer. The result showed that there are potentials to both increase consumer satisfaction and decrease the environmental impact of the food-packaging system, when new packaging design reduces food losses. A model was developed that calculates the balance of environmental impact between reduction of food losses, and more packaging material. The result showed that it can be environmentally motivated to increase the environmental impact of packaging, if the amount of food losses is reduced. This is especially true for food items with high environmental impact, e.g. meat and dairy products, and for food items that have a high share of loss, e.g. bread. I have also explored to what extent packaging can influence food losses in households. The study showed that about 20% to 25% of household food waste was related to packaging. The households noted three packaging attributes as the main causes for food losses; ‘too big packaging’, ‘difficult to empty’ and ‘best-before-date’. Finally there is a discussion of packaging research in the context of sustainability principles, and suggestions for further research.Paper IV was still a manuscript at the time of the thesis defense.
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Almutairi, Badriya L. "Investigating the feasibility and soil-structure integrity of onshore wind turbine systems in Kuwait." Thesis, Loughborough University, 2017. https://dspace.lboro.ac.uk/2134/27612.
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Wind energy technologies are considered to be among the most promising types of renewable energy sources, which have since attracted broad considerations through recent years due to the soaring oil prices and the growing concerns over climate change and energy security. In Kuwait, rapid industrialisation, population growth and increasing water desalination are resulting in high energy demand growth, increasing the concern of oil diminishing as a main source of energy and the climate change caused by CO2 emissions from fossil fuel based energy. These demands and challenges compelled governments to embark on a diversification strategy to meet growing energy demand and support continued economic growth. Kuwait looked for alternative forms of energy by assessing potential renewable energy resources, including wind and sun. Kuwait is attempting to use and invest in renewable energy due to the fluctuating price of oil, diminishing reserves, the rapid increase in population, the high consumption of electricity and the environment protection. In this research, wind energy will be investigated as an attractive source of energy in Kuwait.
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Hoxha, Elda. "Sustainability of Building Structures." Master's thesis, Alma Mater Studiorum - Università di Bologna, 2018.
Find full textAbstract:
The aim of this research is to explore the sustainability of the existing residential buildings and to analyse how sustainability can be assessed if sustainable materials and technologies would be used.
The main objectives are concentrated in providing a general knowledge of sustainability and to examine how much sustainable the residential buildings are. To analyze the various technologies and materials that can be used in order to reduce the climate-altering emissions, to improve energy efficiency, to reduce costs and to improve the living conditions. Providing knowledge and tools for the sustainable re-design of existing buildings, which will be addressed to environmental, technical, economic and social feasibility of proposed measures, and to energy control. For the analysis, different case studies in different countries will be studied and then a life-cycle approach will be applied to a theoretical residential building, and all the relevant impact categories for the selected type of buildings will be taken into account.
In order to analyze the sustainability of the building, a qualitative research will be done using literature sources, international database, journal articles, technical and official reports from the government or group researchers patented and SimaPro software. Materials and dimensions will be defined and will be studied the integrated energy performance, CO2 emissions, global warming, acoustic comfort, thermal comfort, indoor environmental quality for existing residential building structures. All these steps will be taken in order to allow an LCA analysis of the materials of the residential buildings and to define when can be considered that the system has actually been sustained.
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Norell, Arlid Malin. "Energieffektivisering av äldre flerbostadshus : En analys av energisparande åtgärder i 50-talsflerbostadshus klimatskal, ställd mot deras kostnad." Thesis, Luleå tekniska universitet, Industriellt och hållbart byggande, 2018. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:ltu:diva-69252.
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Äldre flerbostadshus står för en stor del av Sveriges totala energianvändning som behöver sänkas föratt minska klimatpåverkan och klara regeringsmålet om effektivare energianvändning. Examensarbetets syfte är därför att bidra till en ökad kunskap om energieffektivisering genom åtgärder i äldre byggnaders klimatskärm, och om hur åtgärder kan värderas genom energisimulering och livscykelkostnadsanalys. Målet är att identifiera vilka åtgärder som är ekonomiskt och arkitektoniskt lämpliga för äldre flerbostadshus med intresse av att bevara deras karaktär. Det är även att bedöma vilken energibesparing och livscykelkostnad de utvalda åtgärderna genererar. Ett flerbostadshus i centrala Luleå valdes ut som referensbyggnad. Byggnaden är genom sin konstruktion och design representativ för tidseran. Intressanta åtgärder samt åtgärdspaket i dess klimatskal valdes ut. Sedan utfördes en bred litteraturgenomgång om bostadsbyggandet i Sverige 1945–1964, byggnadens energianvändning, energieffektivisering av klimatskalet, de utvalda åtgärderna samt metoderna energisimulering och livscykelkostnadsanalys. Referensbyggnaden dokumenterades och en energisimuleringsmodell byggdes i programvaran IDA ICE. Den nuvarande utformningen av byggnaden simulerades och kalibrerades mot senast uppmätt normalårskorrigerad energianvändning. Sedan utfördes simuleringar för de utvalda åtgärderna och åtgärdspaketen vilka bestämts till tilläggsisolering av vindsbjälklag, byte av fönster till lågenergifönster och tätning av otätheter runt dessa, en kombination av båda tidigare åtgärder (åtgärdspaket 1), tilläggsisolering av fasad och fönsterbyte, samt en kombination av alla tre åtgärder (åtgärdspaket 2). Livscykelkostnaderna för nuläget och för implementering av de olika åtgärderna beräknades genom nuvärdeskostnadsmetoden. Även återbetalningstider beräknades genom simple-payback-metoden. Byggnadens nuvarande utformning gav efter kalibrering en simulerad energianvändning på 136,2 kWh/(m2Atemp,år); 2,9 % över det senast uppmätta normalårskorrigerade värdet. Nuvärdeskostnaden för att inte utföra någon åtgärd beräknades till ca 2 727 tkr. Åtgärderna genererade energibesparingar på 3,5–14,6 %, nuvärdeskostnader på 2 685-5 880 tkr och återbetalningstider på 7-105 år. För varje adderad åtgärd i klimatskalet ökade energibesparingen. Tilläggsisolering av vindsbjälklag visade sig vara den enda lönsamma åtgärden, då den har en nuvärdeskostnad som är lägre än att inte utföra någon åtgärd. En känslighetsanalys utfördes för kostnadsberäkningarna där diskonteringsräntan höjdes och sänktes med 2 % och energipriset höjdes med 10 %. Tilläggsisoleringav vindsbjälklag kvarstod dock som den enda lönsamma åtgärden. Åtgärderna hade kunnat generera högre procentuell energibesparing för en annan liknande byggnad. Referensbyggnaden innehåller ett stort renoverat kontor vilket ger en lägre nuvarande energianvändning och lägre procentuell energibesparing för åtgärder än om endast den äldre bostadsdelen studerats. Då Luleå har Sveriges lägsta energipris är åtgärder med hög investeringskostnad ekonomiskt svårmotiverade. Detta beror på att kostnadsbesparingarna genom minskad energianvändning blir små i förhållande till åtgärdernas investeringskostnader. Tilläggsisolering av fasad kan inte rekommenderas då åtgärden både är mycket olönsam och förändrar byggnadens uttryck väsentligt. Slutsatsen är att tilläggsisolering av vindsbjälklag är den lämpligaste åtgärden för äldre flerbostadshus, av de undersökta åtgärderna för energieffektivisering i klimatskalet. Den är arkitektoniskt lämplig med hänsyn till bevarandet av byggnaden då den inte förändrar byggnadens utseende. Den är även ekonomiskt lämplig då den har en livscykelkostnad som är lägre änalternativet att inte utföra någon åtgärd. För fortsatta studier föreslås bl.a. att undersöka hur åtgärder kan göras mer attraktiva för fastighetsägare, att kartlägga fastigheter från tidseran (skick, energianvändning, resultat av åtgärder, möjligheter) samt att utvärdera potentialen av ny teknik.Old multifamily houses stand for a large part of Sweden’s total energy usage, which must decrease to minimize our environmental impact and to accomplish the government goal of more efficient energy usage. The aim of this master thesis is therefore to contribute to an increased knowledge on energy optimization through building envelope improvements in older buildings, and how energy efficiency measures can be evaluated through building energy simulation and life cycle cost analysis. The goal is to identify which measures that are economically and architecturally appropriate for old multifamily houses with interest in retaining their character. It is also to evaluate which energy saving and life cycle cost the selected measures generate. A multifamily house in central Luleå was selected as reference building. The building is by its construction and design representative for the era. Interesting energy efficiency measures in the building envelope were chosen. Then a wide literature study was carried out on house building in Sweden 1945-1964, building energy usage, energy efficiency through building envelope measures, the selected measures and the methods building energy simulation and life cycle cost analysis. The reference building was documented and an energy simulation model was built in the software IDA ICE. A present version of the building was simulated and calibrated to better match the latest normalised annual value. After that, simulations were performed for the selected measures; additional attic insulation, change to low energy windows and weather stripping these, a combination of both previous measures, additional facade insulation and change of windows, and a combination of all three measures. The life cycle costs of the present situation and for implementation of the different measures were calculated through the net present cost method. Also, payback times were calculated through the simple payback method. The building in its original state showed a post-calibration energy usage of 136,2 kWh/(m2Atemp,year); 2,9 % above the surveyed value. The net present cost for not performing any energy conservation measures was calculated to about 2 727 SEK. The measures generated energy savings of 3,5-14,6 %, net present costs of 2 685 -5 880 SEK and payback times of 7-105 years. For each added measure in the building envelope, the energy saving increased. Additional insulation of the attic turned out to be the only profitable measure, since its net present cost is lower than for not performing any energy conservation measure. A sensitivity analysis was performed for the cost analyses where the discount rate was raised and lowered by 2 % and the energy price raised by 10 %. However, the additional attic insulation remained as the only profitable measure. The energy conservation measures could have generated greater energy savings for a similar building. The reference building contains a large retrofitted office which lowers the present energy usage and the percental energy savings for measures compared to if only the dwelling part had been studied. Since Luleå has Sweden’s lowest energy prices, measures with high investment costs become difficult to give grounds for. This is because the cost savings achieved by their energy savings are low compared to their investment costs. Additional facade insulation cannot be recommended since it both is very unprofitable and highly changes the appearance of the building. The conclusion is that additional attic insulation is the most appropriate energy conservation measure for old multifamily houses, of selected measures in the building envelope. It can be regarded as architecturally appropriate since it does not change the building appearance. It is also economically appropriate since its life cycle cost is lower than for not performing any measure. Suggested future research includes analyzing how energy efficiency measures can be made more attractive for real estate owners, charting real estate from the era (condition, energy usage, results from measures, opportunities) and evaluating the potential of new technology within the field.
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Ahmadi, Achachlouei Mohammad. "Environmental Impacts of Electronic Media : A Comparison of a Magazine’s Tablet and Print Editions." Licentiate thesis, KTH, Miljöstrategisk analys, 2013. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-118835.
Full textAbstract:
The aim of this thesis is to assess potential environmental impacts of electronic media distribution and consumption—from a life cycle perspective—as compared to those of print media. The thesis consists of a cover essay and two papers appended at the end of the thesis. The cover essay summarizes the papers and puts them in context. The main objectives of the thesis are twofold: to assess potential environmental impacts of production and consumption of tablet editions of magazines from a life cycle perspective (Paper I), and to compare potential environmental impacts of a magazine’s print edition with that of its tablet edition (Paper II). The thesis examines the following specific research questions: (1) What are the main environmental impacts of print and tablet editions? (2) Which activities are giving rise to the main environmental impacts of the print and tablet editions? (3) What are the key factors influencing these impacts? (4) What are major data gaps and uncertainties? Based on the present assessment, it is clear that for the print magazine, pulp and paper production is the principal cause of most of the potential environmental impacts. For this reason, the use of recycled paper, rather than virgin fiber, in newsprint production may considerably offset environmental impacts. For the tablet edition, the content production dominates the potential environmental impacts when readers are few. This appears to be the case in an emerging state of the magazine, but with distribution of more media products to smaller groups of people, this may persist for “mature” products as well. As the number of tablet readers grows, more of the environmental impact of the is due to manufacturing of the device and electronic distribution. However, content production may still be a major factor, depending on the specific environmental impacts studied.QC 20130306
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Uz, Zaman Atiq. "Technical Development of Waste Sector in Sweden: Survey and LifeCycle Environmental Assessment of Emerging Technologies." Thesis, KTH, Hållbar utveckling, miljövetenskap och teknik, 2009. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-46334.
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Waste can be considered as an urban burden or as a valuable resource depending on how it ismanaged. Different waste treatment technologies are available at present to manage municipal solidwaste (MSW). Various actors are involved to develop waste treatment technology for certain area.The aim of this study is to analyze the driving forces in technical development in waste sector inSweden. The study is also done to identify emerging waste management technology in Sweden.Moreover, a comparative study of existing and emerging technologies is done by Life CycleAssessment (LCA) model. An extensive literature review and pilot questionnaire survey among thewaste management professionals’ is done for the study. LCA model is developed by SimaProsoftware CML2 baseline method is used for identifying environmental burden from the wastetechnologies.Dry composting, Pyrolysis-Gasification (P-G), Plasma-Arc are identified as potential emergingtechnologies for waste management system in Sweden. Technical developments of thesetechnologies are influenced by indigenous people’s behavior, waste characteristics, regulations, healthor environmental impact and global climate change. Comparative LCA model of P-G andIncineration shows that, P-G is a favorable waste treatment technology than Incineration for MSW,especially in acidification, global warming and aquatic eco-toxicity impact categories.
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Botes, Jan Adriaan. "Development, characterisation and verification of an integrated design tool for a power source of a soya business unit / J.A. Botes." Thesis, North-West University, 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/10394/1943.
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