Proposal of a framework for scale-up life cycle inventory: A case of nanofibers for lithium iron phosphate cathode applications

Advantages and drawbacks of life cycle assessment application to the pharmaceuticals: a short critical literature review

Pharmaceuticals are among the most challenging products to assess by life cycle assessment (LCA). The main drawback highlighted by LCA practitioners is the lack of inventory data, both regarding the synthesis of active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) precursors (upstream) and the details concerning the downstream phases (use and end of life). A short critical review of pharma-LCAs found in the literature is here proposed, with discussion of several tools and models used to predict the environmental impacts derived from the life cycle of pharmaceuticals, emphasizing current strengths and weaknesses, and exploring the possibilities for improvements. The case of antibiotics is selected as a representative class of pharmaceuticals, due to their massive use worldwide and the growing related issue of antimicrobial resistance enrichment, which is generally not included in most of LCAs. Also, we comment on drafting product category rules (PCRs) in the relevant field to develop standard methodologies and enhance the comparability of the studies, ultimately advocating collaboration with companies and improving inventory data quality and availability for the whole value chain of products.

Environmental Impact Prediction of a New Tire Vulcanization Activator

Zinc oxide (ZnO) is the most common curing activator used to manufacture tires. To minimize environmental impacts by decreasing the zinc content and rolling resistance of tires, ZnO nanoparticles (NPs) anchored on SiO2 NPs (ZnO@SiO2) are currently under development as new activators at the pilot scale. Here, we applied prospective life cycle assessment to predict the impacts on human health, ecosystem quality, and resource scarcity of synthesizing ZnO@SiO2 for the production of passenger car tires at an industrial scale. We found that the life cycle impacts of the synthesis are expected to decrease by 89 to 96% between the pilot and industrial scale. The largest contributors to the synthesis of ZnO@SiO2 were electricity consumption and waste treatment of the solvent. Using the new activator for tire production led to potential reductions of 9 to 12% in life cycle impacts compared to tires that are currently in use. Those reductions were due to the expected decrease in rolling resistance, leading to lower fuel consumption, which outweighed the additional environmental impacts of the synthesis, as well as the potential decrease in lifetime. Our work highlights an opportunity for manufacturers to mitigate their impacts over the full life cycle of the tire.

Environmental concerns on the use of the electrospinning technique for the production of polymeric micro/nanofibers

The production of micro and nanofibers through the electrospinning technique is a well assessed technology that finds application in a variety of fields. Indeed, the specific features of electrospun fibers, as well as the possibility to be modelled and functionalized, ensure their great versatility. In the last decades, the widespread use of electrospun fibers promoted studies related to the evaluation of both human health and environmental risks associated to their handling and exposure. However, to date, the environmental impact strictly related to the use of the manufacturing process has been barely considered. Therefore, the present work aims to assess the environmental impacts of the electrospinning technology used to produce micro and nanofibers. To this purpose, a model polymer was systematically electrospun, varying the main system, process and external parameters, that control the electrospinning technique. A simplified life cycle assessment analysis was finally used to evaluate how the fibrous morphology, closely linked to the choice of the technological parameters, intrinsically affected the environmental impacts.

Upscaling via a Prospective LCA: A Case Study on Tomato Homogenate Using a Near-to-Market Pasteurisation Technology

Thanks to food technology, the production of cold tomato soups such as salmorejo, a traditional Spanish dish, has become industrialised. Thermal treatments play an important role in ready-to-eat meals, prolonging their shelf-life. Radiofrequency (RF) heating is less energy-intensive than conventional heat exchangers and has been successfully used to pasteurise food; novel applications, however, provide results at laboratory or pilot scale, so conclusions might not be translatable to industry. In this study, a prospective Life-Cycle Assessment of salmorejo pasteurised using RF was performed to highlight the relevance of upscaling and to compare its environmental impacts with those of conventional pasteurisation. “Gate-to-gate” results show that the pilot has greater environmental impacts due to its greater energy consumption, as thermal energy is not recovered. The packing and landfill of organic waste exhibit the highest impacts at industrial scale. RF technology does not imply significant environmental improvements versus conventional pasteurisation. Potential changes in the energy background of future scenarios have relevant consequences in the environmental impacts. “Farm-to-factory-gate” analysis highlights ingredients and tomato valorisation as the most impacting stages. The prospective LCA of scaled up scenarios constitutes a tool for environmental screening in food ecodesign, contributing to Sustainable Development Goal 12.

Green and sustainable method of manufacturing anti-fouling zwitterionic polymers-modified poly(vinyl chloride) ultrafiltration membranes

The nonsolvent induced phase separation (NIPS) method for ultrafiltration (UF) membrane fabrication relies on the extensive use of traditional solvents, thus ranking first in terms of ecological impacts among all the membrane fabrication steps. Methyl-5-(dimethylamino)-2-methyl-5-oxopentanoate (PolarClean), as a green solvent, was utilized in this study to fabricate poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC) UF membranes. Subsequently, in post-treatment process, zwitterionic polymer, [2-(methacryloyloxy) ethyl] dimethyl-(3-sulfopropyl) ammonium hydroxide (DMAPS), was grafted onto the membrane surface to enhance its anti-fouling properties using a greener surface-initiated activator regenerated by electron transfer-atom transfer radical polymerization (ARGET-ATRP) reaction. This novel method used low toxicity chemicals, avoiding the environmental hazards of traditional ATRP, and greatly improving the reaction efficiency. We systematically studied the grafting time effect on the resulted membranes using sodium alginate as the foulant, and found that short grafting time (30 min) achieved excellent membrane performance: pure water permeability of 2872 L m^-2 h^-1 bar^-1, flux recovery ratio of 86.4% after 7-hour fouling test, and foulant rejection of 96.0%. This work discusses for the first time the greener procedures with lower environmental impacts in both fabrication and modification processes of PVC UF membranes.

Parameter optimization of environmental technologies using a LCA-based analysis scheme: A bioaugmentation case study

Life cycle assessment (LCA) has proven to be a useful tool in assessing environmental technologies in a retrospective manner. To fully uncover the environmental improvement potential while advancing technologies under technical and environmental constraints, this study recommended approaching the LCA proactively to assess the progress of parameter optimization before determining critical parameters. To that end, the present work introduced a multimethod eight-step (MMES) analysis scheme, which included an integration of LCA with Plackett-Burman multifactorial design, central composite design, and multi-objective optimization. By creating a large number of scenarios through experimental design, we jointly optimized technical efficiency and environmental sustainability, which allowed for the identification of critical parameters that likely had contradictory influences on different objectives. Through a case study concerning the bioaugmentation of constructed wetland (CW), we applied the MMES scheme to optimize the culture conditions of the strain Arthrobacter sp. ZXY-2 for enhanced atrazine removal. The results showed that, by reducing the Na₂HPO₄·12H₂O concentration from 6.5 g/L to 6 g/L in the culture condition, we decreased the freshwater ecotoxicity potential and maintained a high level of atrazine removal. Regarding the production process of microbial inocula, the strain ZXY-2 grown at the optimized culture reduced the total environmental impact from 13% to 50% compared with the original culture and helped the CW exhibit more favorable atrazine-removal performance. Taken together, the case study demonstrated the effectiveness of using the MMES scheme for parameter optimization of environmental technologies. For future development, the MMES scheme should extend the application to more fields and refine uncertainty management.

Life Cycle Assessment for the Design of Chemical Processes, Products, and Supply Chains

Design in the chemical industry increasingly aims not only at economic but also at environmental targets. Environmental targets are usually best quantified using the standardized, holistic method of life cycle assessment (LCA). The resulting life cycle perspective poses a major challenge to chemical engineering design because the design scope is expanded to include process, product, and supply chain. Here, we first provide a brief tutorial highlighting key elements of LCA. Methods to fill data gaps in LCA are discussed, as capturing the full life cycle is data intensive. On this basis, we review recent methods for integrating LCA into the design of chemical processes, products, and supply chains. Whereas adding LCA as a posteriori tool for decision support can be regarded as established, the integration of LCA into the design process is an active field of research. We present recent advances and derive future challenges for LCA-based design.

How to Conduct Prospective Life Cycle Assessment for Emerging Technologies? A Systematic Review and Methodological Guidance

Emerging technologies are expected to contribute to environmental sustainable development. However, throughout the development of novel technologies, it is unknown whether emerging technologies can lead to reduced environmental impacts compared to a potentially displaced mature technology. Additionally, process steps suspected to be environmental hotspots can be improved by process engineers early in the development of the emerging technology. In order to determine the environmental impacts of emerging technologies at an early stage of development, prospective life cycle assessment (LCA) should be performed. However, consistency in prospective LCA methodology is lacking. Therefore, this article develops a framework for a prospective LCA in order to overcome the methodological inconsistencies regarding prospective LCAs. The methodological framework was developed using literature on prospective LCAs of emerging technologies, and therefore, a literature review on prospective LCAs was conducted. We found 44 case studies, four review papers, and 17 papers on methodological guidance. Three main challenges for conducting prospective LCAs are identified: Comparability, data, and uncertainty challenges. The issues in defining the aim, functionality, and system boundaries of the prospective LCAs, as well as problems with specifying LCIA methodologies, comprise the comparability challenge. Data availability, quality, and scaling are issues within the data challenge. Finally, uncertainty exists as an overarching challenge when applying a prospective LCA. These three challenges are especially crucial for the prospective assessment of emerging technologies. However, this review also shows that within the methodological papers and case studies, several approaches exist to tackle these challenges. These approaches were systematically summarized within a framework to give guidance on how to overcome the issues when conducting prospective LCAs of emerging technologies. Accordingly, this framework is useful for LCA practitioners who are analyzing early-stage technologies. Nevertheless, further research is needed to develop appropriate scale-up schemes and to include uncertainty analyses for a more in-depth interpretation of results.

Aligning sustainability assessment with responsible research and innovation: Towards a framework for Constructive Sustainability Assessment

Emerging technologies are increasingly promoted on the promise of tackling the grand challenge of sustainability. A range of assessment and governance approaches seek to evaluate these claims, but these tend to be applied disparately and lack widespread operationalisation. They also face specific challenges, such as high levels of uncertainty, when it comes to emerging technologies. Building and reflecting on both theory and practice, this article develops a framework for Constructive Sustainability Assessment (CSA) that enables the application of sustainability assessments to emerging technologies as part of a broader deliberative approach. In order to achieve this, we discuss and critique current approaches to analytical sustainability assessment and review deliberative social science governance frameworks. We then develop the conceptual basis of CSA - blending life-cycle thinking with principles of responsible research and innovation. This results in four design principles - transdisciplinarity, opening-up, exploring uncertainty and anticipation - that can be followed when applying sustainability assessments to emerging technologies. Finally, we discuss the practical implementation of the framework through a three-step process to (a) formulate the sustainability assessment in collaboration with stakeholders, (b) evaluate potential sustainability implications using methods such as anticipatory life-cycle assessment and (c) interpret and explore the results as part of a deliberative process. Through this, CSA facilitates a much-needed transdisciplinary response to enable the governance of emerging technologies towards sustainability. The framework will be of interest to scientists, engineers, and policy-makers working with emerging technologies that have sustainability as an explicit or implicit motivator.

The Future of Ex-Ante LCA? Lessons Learned and Practical Recommendations

Every decision-oriented life cycle assessment (LCAs) entails, at least to some extent, a future-oriented feature. However, apart from the ex-ante LCAs, the majority of LCA studies are retrospective in nature and do not explicitly account for possible future effects. In this review a generic theoretical framework is proposed as a guideline for ex-ante LCA. This framework includes the entire technology life cycle, from the early design phase up to continuous improvements of mature technologies, including their market penetration. The compatibility with commonly applied system models yields an additional aspect of the framework. Practical methods and procedures are categorised, based on how they incorporate future-oriented features in LCA. The results indicate that most of the ex-ante LCAs focus on emerging technologies that have already gone through some research cycles within narrowly defined system boundaries. There is a lack of attention given to technologies that are at a very early development stage, when all options are still open and can be explored at a low cost. It is also acknowledged that technological learning impacts the financial and environmental performance of mature production systems. Once technologies are entering the market, shifts in market composition can lead to substantial changes in environmental performance.