Integrating economic input–output life cycle assessment with risk assessment for a screening-level analysis

Goal, Scope, and Background  The paper describes the integration of the economic input–output life cycle assessment (EIO-LCA) model and the environmental fate and transport model (CHEMGL) with a risk assessment tool. Utilizing the EIO-LCA, instead of a traditional LCA, enables a rapid, screening-level analysis of an emerging chemical of concern, decabromodiphenyl ether (DecaBDE). The risk assessment in this study is evaluated based on the mass of chemical released, estimated concentrations, exposure, and chemical toxicity. Methods  The relative risk from ten economic sectors identified within the EIO-LCA model, 55 chemicals utilized in those sectors and DecaBDE along with four potential DecaBDE breakdown products, were evaluated for the life cycle stages and exposure pathways. The relative risk (expressed as toluene equivalents) of the different chemicals, sectors, and life cycle stages were compared to assess those representing the greatest overall relative risks to humans (via inhalation and ingestion) and fish. Results  The greatest overall risk to human health resulted from the manufacturing and production stages. For fish, the manufacturing stage represented virtually all of the risk. Of the 56 chemicals evaluated, DecaBDE represented the majority of the total risk to humans. However, DecaBDE posed the least risk compared to its potential breakdown products. Discussion  The risk to humans from ingestion, which represented the greatest risk, from the production, manufacturing, and consumption stages can be controlled and reduced through various safety precautions in the workplace. Additionally, the increasing concentration of DecaBDE in anaerobic compartments represents a threat to humans and fish via the higher risk DecaBDE breakdown products. Conclusions  Overall, the manufacturing and production life cycle stages pose the greatest risk to humans and fish. The sediment compartment received the highest DecaBDE concentration for the production, manufacturing, and consumption stages. This case study demonstrates that the integrated EIO-LCA with risk assessment is suitable for screening-level analysis of emerging chemicals due to rapid life cycle inventory analysis. Recommendations  The production and manufacturing stages allow for greater industry control and government regulation, compared to the consumption stage, because there are fewer point sources. This integrated life cycle methodology may allow chemical designers to evaluate each stage and assess areas where risks can be minimized.     

A life cycle method for assessment of a colliery’s eco-indicator

Global Scope and Background  The study was aimed at presenting the methodology of the process eco-indicator, in relation to hard coal mines, and thereby making evaluation of the impact of the mine’s coal extraction process on the environment. The life cycle of a mine is made up of three phases: opening and developing the mine’s deposit, extraction of the mine’s deposit, closing the mine. Methods  The assessment of environmental influence of mining operation of a colliery was executed on a basis of the life cycle analysis, in accordance with the standard series PN-EN 14040. The environmental loads caused by individual unit processes were calculated by means of the aforementioned methodology with division into the basic influence categories: human health, ecosystem quality and natural resources. The obtained values of eco-indicators for the individual unit processes made it possible to compare the unit-process-caused environmental loads. Mean values of the eco-indicators of the individual unit processes were calculated by means of the inventory analysis covering 38 collieries. Next, these indicators were used to compare environmental load values by each similar process in a colliery. A total eco-indicator was calculated for colliery by summing up the eco-indicators of the individual unit processes. The eco-indicators, structured as above, were calculated for the phase of opening out a deposit and for the phase of extraction. Results and Discussion  The model mine in the phase of extraction of a deposit causes a total environmental load which expressed in points of the eco-indicator 99 amounts to 23.9 [MEw]. In the ‘human health’ category losses amount to 8.4 per cent, in the ‘quality of ecosystem’ 0.6 per cent and in the ‘resourses’ category 91 per cent. The greatest losses in all categories are caused by the process of getting body of coal and the next greatest ones are:

A climate goal–based,multicriteria method for system evaluation in life cycle assessment

The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment - Our ability to restrict global warming to the established objectives in the Paris Agreement depends on the metrics used to evaluate the climate...     

Cradle-to-gate life cycle assessment of cobalt sulfate production derived from a nickel–copper–cobalt mine in China

Purpose

In the booming electric vehicle market, the demand for refined cobalt is showing a blowout growth. China is the largest cobalt-refiner and cobalt-importer in the world. However, the life cycle inventory and potential environmental impact from cobalt refining in China have not been clearly illustrated. This paper builds a comprehensive inventory to support the data needs of downstream users of cobalt sulfate. A “cradle-to-gate” life cycle assessment was conducted to provide theoretical support to stakeholders.

Methods

A life cycle assessment was performed based on ISO 14040 to evaluate the potential environmental impact and recognize the key processes. The system boundary of this study contains four stages of cobalt sulfate production: mining, beneficiation, primary extraction, and refining. Except for the experimental data used in the primary extraction stage, all relevant data are actual operating data. The normalization value was calculated based on the latest released global emission and extraction data.

Results and discussion

Normalization results show that the potential impacts of cobalt refining were mainly concentrated in the fossil depletion and freshwater ecotoxicity categories. The beneficiation stage and the refining stage account for 72% and 26% of the total normalization value, respectively. The beneficiation stage needs to consume a lot of chemicals and energy to increase the cobalt content, due to the low grade of cobalt ore in China. Compared with cobalt concentrate, the use of cobalt-containing waste (e.g., cobalt waste from EV batteries) can ease endpoint impact by up to 73%. With the application of the target electricity structure in 2050, the potential impact of China’s cobalt sulfate production on global warming, fossil depletion, and particulates formation can be reduced by 24%, 22%, and 26%, respectively.

Conclusion

Findings indicate that the chemical inputs and electricity consumption are primary sources of potential environmental impact in China’s cobalt sulfate production. Promoting the development of urban mines can reduce excessive consumption of chemicals and energy in the beneficiation stage. The environmental benefits of transforming the electricity structure and using more renewable energy to reduce dependence on coal-based power in the cobalt refining industry were revealed.

     

Uncertainty in life cycle impact assessment of toxic releases practical experiences - arguments for a reductionalistic approach?

This paper describes the experience with impact assessment of toxic releases in a Substance Flow Analysis (SFA) for PVC in Sweden. For this system, all emissions related to the PVC-chain were inventoried. They have been evaluated making use of the Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA) step from the CMI.-guide, including the new toxicity equivalency factors calculated with the Uniform System for Evaluation of Substances (USES). The application of this method led to the conclusion that I.CA Impact Assessment of toxic releases is still a major bottleneck: the USES-equivalency factors are not to he trusted due to outdated data, inappropriate defaults, etc. in the USES’ substance properties database. Therefore, a second USES-ser of factors was calculated that differed up to factors of 1,000 or more from the old ones. Even these factors probably suffer from unacceptable high structural, in practice not reducible uncertainties. In conclusion, we warn the LCA community not to overestimate the possibility of LCA Impact Assessment to obtain a meaningfull priority setting with regard to toxicity problems. Instead, we propose developing indicator systems for LCIA of toxic releases that genuinely deal with all relevant types of uncertainty: data uncertainty, modelling uncertainty and particularly paradigmatic uncertainty.     

A novel social life cycle assessment method for determining workers’ human development: a case study of the sugarcane biorefineries in Brazil

The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment - The social life cycle assessment (S-LCA) methodology needs to advance in its methodological development, mainly regarding the impact assessment...     

Customised life cycle assessment tool for sugarcane (CaneLCA)—a development in the evaluation of alternative agricultural practices

Purpose

To promote eco-efficient sugarcane products, there is a need for life cycle assessment (LCA) methods that enable rapid assessment of the environmental implications of alternative agricultural practices. In response, a customised LCA method for sugarcane growing was developed and operationalized in the CaneLCA tool. The aim of the paper was to describe the CaneLCA method in detail and to test the effectiveness of the tool’s parameterisation for evaluating the environmental implications of cane growing practice alternatives.

Methods

CaneLCA (Version 1.03) was developed over 6 years (2011–2017) in conjunction with the Australian sugarcane sector. The LCA process was customised for sugarcane growing by focusing on ‘cradle to farm gate’ operations and relevant impact categories, and by parameterising practice variables. To evaluate the effectiveness of the tool, we used it to assess a case study of actual practice changes in the Wet Tropics region of Australia, in terms of the scope of practice variables and environmental implications that can be accounted for.

Results and discussion

The case study results generated by CaneLCA were consistent with those generated by past studies using LCA software. The parameterisation of practice variables allowed for all the practice changes represented in the case study to be assessed. It is suitable for evaluating such known practice alternatives, but less suited to evaluating very innovative practice alternatives, as it is constrained by the underlying algorithms and factors. Most of the environmental implications could be considered, except for effects on soil quality. This will be an area for future tool development to understand the full implications of agricultural practice change, along with the introduction of dynamic models to better estimate emissions.

Conclusions

CaneLCA makes the LCA process more rapid for evaluating alternative sugarcane growing practices, thereby speeding up progress towards devising more eco-efficient sugarcane products. It provides a model that could be adapted for other sugarcane growing regions, and for other perennial cropping systems. The novelty of the method is the detailed parameterisation of practice variables so that a wide range of alternative practices can be evaluated.

     

Integrating triple bottom line input–output analysis into life cycle sustainability assessment framework: the case for US buildings

Purpose

With the increasing concerns related to integration of social and economic dimensions of the sustainability into life cycle assessment (LCA), traditional LCA approach has been transformed into a new concept, which is called as life cycle sustainability assessment (LCSA). This study aims to contribute the existing LCSA framework by integrating several social and economic indicators to demonstrate the usefulness of input–output modeling on quantifying sustainability impacts. Additionally, inclusion of all indirect supply chain-related impacts provides an economy-wide analysis and a macro-level LCSA. Current research also aims to identify and outline economic, social, and environmental impacts, termed as triple bottom line (TBL), of the US residential and commercial buildings encompassing building construction, operation, and disposal phases.

Methods

To achieve this goal, TBL economic input–output based hybrid LCA model is utilized for assessing building sustainability of the US residential and commercial buildings. Residential buildings include single and multi-family structures, while medical buildings, hospitals, special care buildings, office buildings, including financial buildings, multi-merchandise shopping, beverage and food establishments, warehouses, and other commercial structures are classified as commercial buildings according to the US Department of Commerce. In this analysis, 16 macro-level sustainability assessment indicators were chosen and divided into three main categories, namely environmental, social, and economic indicators.

Results and discussion

Analysis results revealed that construction phase, electricity use, and commuting played a crucial role in much of the sustainability impact categories. The electricity use was the most dominant component of the environmental impacts with more than 50 % of greenhouse gas emissions and energy consumption through all life cycle stages of the US buildings. In addition, construction phase has the largest share in income category with 60 % of the total income generated through residential building’s life cycle. Residential buildings have higher shares in all of the sustainability impact categories due to their relatively higher economic activity and different supply chain characteristics.

Conclusions

This paper is an important attempt toward integrating the TBL perspective into LCSA framework. Policymakers can benefit from such approach and quantify macro-level environmental, economic, and social impacts of their policy implications simultaneously. Another important outcome of this study is that focusing only environmental impacts may misguide decision-makers and compromise social and economic benefits while trying to reduce environmental impacts. Hence, instead of focusing on environmental impacts only, this study filled the gap about analyzing sustainability impacts of buildings from a holistic perspective.     

An environmental assessment of small hydropower in India: the real costs of dams’ construction under a life cycle perspective

The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment - In the last years, India has taken a number of initiatives to boost small hydropower development based on the assumption of being a green energy...     

An open-flower mutant of Melilotus alba: Potential for floral-dip transformation of a papilionoid legume with a short life cycle?

This paper describes an open-flower mutant, designated opf, that we discovered in a genetic screen of fast neutron bombardment mutants in an attempt at floral-dip transformation of Melilotus alba (Fabaceae; white sweetclover), an alternative papilionoid legume host for Sinorhizobium meliloti. The opf mutant developed flowers with reflexed sepals and petals, thereby exposing the stamens and carpel, whereas wild-type sweetclover inflorescences developed closed flowers where the young stamens and carpel remain covered during the early stages of flower development. Based on crosses with the wild type, the mutant segregated as a single, Mendelian recessive. Crosses were successful only when the opf mutant served as the female parent, suggesting that the mutant was male sterile. However, no obvious differences from wild-type stamen development were observed in the opf mutant. The anther defect was due to indehiscence. However, as the plants approached the end of their life cycle, the frequency of selfing increased. We also investigated whether the opf mutant could be transformed via Agrobacterium tumefaciens floral-dip infiltration because open flowers like those of Arabidopsis appear to be more readily transformable. However, similar to wild-type M. alba, the opf mutant is refractory to floral-dip transformation by Agrobacterium tumefaciens.     

Launch of a new report: “Road testing organizational life cycle assessment around the world: applications,experiences and lessons learned”

Purpose

Organizational life cycle assessment (O-LCA) is still a rather young proposal, but moving towards becoming more broadly accepted as a scientifically mature and practical method. The UNEP/SETAC flagship project “LCA of organizations” concluded its “road-testing” phase and is glad to announce the publication of the final report “Road testing organizational life cycle assessment around the world: applications, experiences and lessons learned.” The full report can be accessed at http://www.lifecycleinitiative.org/download/6060. This article shortly summarizes the flagship project phases and main outcomes, particularly the report recently launched, and pinpoints future actions.

Methods

In 2015, the “Guidance on Organizational Life Cycle Assessment” was published. During the following 2 years, the flagship project accompanied 12 organizations in the road testing of that O-LCA Guidance. They represent four world regions, different sectors and sizes. The road testers’ case studies and their feedback are the basis of the Road-testing Report.

Results and discussion

The Road-testing Report aims to complement the O-LCA Guidance through the road testers’ experience, thus delivering advice for future practitioners and inspiration to method developers. It includes executive summaries of the O-LCA road testers’ case studies and the main results of a comprehensive survey through which the road testers share their experience, feedback, and lessons learned. The road testing confirmed the application potential of the O-LCA method and the positive outcomes of the road testing have shown that no immediate updates to the O-LCA Guidance are needed, but some priority actions were identified in order to further ease the application of O-LCA.

Conclusions

Three main tasks for the coming years are identified by the authors: firstly, the challenges highlighted during the road testing should be addressed in the future by the LCA community; specific methodological difficulties of certain kinds of organizations, like the service sector, should be targeted; and finally, the potential revealed by the organizational perspective can be deployed in adjacent LCA fields. The flagship project team hopes that this second publication, together with the great acceptance of the O-LCA Guidance and the contribution of third parties, will pave the way to make O-LCA a mainstream tool.

     

Both completing system boundaries and realistic modeling of the economy are of interest for life cycle assessment—a reply to “Moving from completing system boundaries to more realistic modeling of the economy in life cycle assessment” by Yang and Heijungs (2018)

The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment - As Yang and Heijungs (Int J Life Cycle Assess https://doi.org/10.1007/s11367-018-1532-y , 2018) bring forward, there is indeed a need for...     

Creating a “family tree” on fertilizer inventory use in life cycle assessment of oil palm: visualization of earlier studies and its implications

The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment - This review develops and applies a visualization method for understanding how chemical fertilizer inventory data, including greenhouse gas (GHG)...     

The use of electromyography for the assessment of sense of muscular effort: a test–retest reliability study

This study sought to examine the test–retest reliability to measure sense of muscular effort with electromyography (EMG). The EMG activity of the tibialis anterior muscle from 23 participants was recorded. Targets of EMG amplitudes produced at 10 and 20% of the maximum voluntary contraction (MVC) were calculated. Participants matched the target EMG level with and without visual feedback (FB). With NFB, the reliability was good to excellent when errors were represented as the average standard deviation (SD) of the error from the target (ICC_1,2 = 0.75 and 0.69 for 10 and 20% targets, respectively). Also, reliability was good when errors were presented as the average SD as a percentage of the MVC EMG (intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC_1,2) = 0.67 and 0.66, respectively, for 10 and 20% targets). Standard deviation around the target was the most reliable method to represent the error. This approach could be used as a simple cost-effective method to assess the sense of muscular effort.     

IMPACT 2002+, ReCiPe 2008 and ILCD’s recommended practice for characterization modelling in life cycle impact assessment: a case study-based comparison

Purpose

The European Commission has launched a recommended set of characterization models and factors for application in life cycle impact assessment (LCIA). However, it is not known how this recommended practice, referred to as the ILCD 2009, performs relative to some of the most frequently used alternative LCIA methodologies. Here, we compare the ILCD 2009 with IMPACT 2002+ and ReCiPe 2008, focusing on characterization at midpoint based on a case study comparing four window design options for use in a residential building.

Methods

Ranking of the four window options was done for each impact category within each methodology. To allow comparison across the methodologies both in terms of total impact scores and contribution patterns for individual substances, impact scores were converted into common metrics for each impact category.

Results and discussion

Apart from toxic impacts on human health and ecosystems, all studied methodologies consistently identify the same window option as having the lowest and the highest environmental impact. This is mainly because few processes, associated with production of heat, dominate the total impacts, and there is a large difference in demand for heat between the compared options. Despite this general agreement in ranking, differences in impact scores are above 3 orders of magnitude for human health impacts from ionizing radiation and ecosystem impacts from land use, and they lie between 1 and 3 orders of magnitude for metal depletion and for toxicity-related impact categories. The differences are somewhat smaller (within 1 order of magnitude) for the impact categories respiratory inorganics and photochemical ozone formation, and are within a factor of 3 for the remaining impact categories. The differences in impact scores in our case study are brought about by the differences in underlying characterization models and/or substance coverage, depending on the impact category.

Conclusions

In spite of substantial differences in impact scores for the individual impact categories, we find that the studied LCIA methods point to the same conclusion with respect to identifying the alternative with the lowest environmental burden and ascribe this to the fact that few processes are driving the main environmental impacts, and there is large difference in demand for output from these processes between the compared options. Even though the overall conclusions remain the same for our case study, the choice of the ILCD’s recommended practice over the existing alternatives does matter for the impact categories ionizing radiation and land use and all toxicity-related impact categories.     

Regulation of proline utilization in Salmonella typhimurium: How do cells avoid a futile cycle?

Summary Salmonella typhimurium can degrade proline for use as a carbon, nitrogen, or energy source. To determine whether a futile cycle occurs which degrades the proline accumulated by proline biosynthesis, we studied the expression and enzymatic activity of the proline utilization (put) pathway under conditions which increase the concentration of the intracellular proline pools: catabolism of the dipeptide glycyl-proline, overproduction of proline due to a mutation which prevents feedback inhibition of proline biosynthesis, and accumulation of proline due to osmotic stress. The results indicate that: (i) internal proline induces the put genes, but only when accumulated to concentrations greater than the normal proline biosynthetic pool; and (ii) degradation of proline pools accumulated under high osmotic pressure is limited because proline oxidase is directly inhibited under these conditions.     

Environmental life cycle assessment of yellow mealworm (Tenebrio molitor) production for human consumption in Austria – a comparison of mealworm and broiler as protein source

The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment - Global food production needs to increase to provide enough food for over 9 billion people living by 2050. Traditional animal production is among...     

Correction to: Creating a “family tree” on fertilizer inventory use in life cycle assessment of oil palm: visualization of earlier studies and its implications

The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment - The original version of this article unfortunately contained a mistake.     

An analytical framework for social life cycle impact assessment—part 2: case study of labor impacts in an IC packaging company

Purpose

The pressure on brand firms in the electronics industry to improve the labor conditions of their workers in their global production networks is increasing. Given the significance of mitigating the impacts of production on labor, this study used the new development method of social life cycle impact assessment (SLCIA) for conducting labor impact assessment. An illustrative example in an integrated circuit (IC) packaging company is presented to demonstrate the assessment of the impacts and the identification of the potential for improvement of labor practices among three factories.

Methods

SLCIA method was proposed based on the UNEP/SETAC Guidelines that were reviewed in our previous work, Part 1 (in a previous article): Methodology. The proposed method was used to assess the impacts of operations on labor in the three factories of an IC packaging company. Nineteen indicators of labor–stakeholders were used to collect data from factories and organizations in 2012. The obtained values from these three factories were translated into social impact scores that ranged from 1 to 5. The score of each indicator was multiplied by the weights of each indicator, and a final score of labor situations was generated to identify the hotspots of labor impacts and to identify the factory with better labor performance.

Results and discussion

The main goal of this study is to demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed SLCIA method in assessing the labor impacts in the electronics industry. Among three factories of IC packaging, factory C was ranked as having the lowest social impact on labor with a higher performance, followed by factories B and A. In addition, the results show that four indicators, “lacking labor union,” “did not hire a sufficient number of disabled employees,” “overtime work that exceeded the legal limit,” and “excessive number of dispatched workers,” were recognized as the main social impacts on labor in IC packaging production.

Conclusions

The SLCA technique was used to assess the impacts of the production processes of three IC packaging factories on the labor conditions of their factory workers. The proposed method shed light on the significant impacts of such processes. The proposed model demonstrated its potential advantage by systematically and effectively identifying the labor impact hotspots, which could assist managers in devising strategies that could improve the labor situations within their organizations.

     

Direct electrochemical immunoassay based on a silica nanoparticles/sol–gel composite architecture for encapsulation of immunoconjugate

A highly hydrophobic and non-toxic colloidal silica nanoparticle/polyvinyl butyral sol–gel composite membrane was prepared on a platinum wire electrode. With diphtheria-toxoid (D-Ag) as a model antigen and encapsulation of diphtheria antibody (D-Ab) in the composite architecture, this membrane could be used for reagentless electrochemical immunoassay. It displayed a porous and homogeneous composite architecture without the aggregation of the immobilized protein molecules. The formation of immunoconjugate by a simple one-step immunoreaction between D-Ag in sample solution and the immobilized D-Ab introduced the change in the potential. Under optimal conditions, the D-Ag analyte could be determined in the linear ranges from 10 to 800 ng ml⁻¹ with a relatively low detection limit of 2.3 ng ml⁻¹ at 3δ. The D-Ag immunosensor exhibited good precision, high sensitivity, acceptable stability, accuracy, and reproducibility. This composite membrane could be used efficiently for the entrapment of different biomarkers and clinical applications.