International Industrial Ecology Day 2021
Posters
The IE Day posters are conveniently displayed in groups on an interactive Miro board (see access button below). The posters are also listed on this page, and only here, you can cast your three votes for the best IE Day poster awards! Voting can be done by selecting your favorite posters below. Awards will be given to the four highest ranking posters. Voting will close at midnight Wednesday 23 June (UTC-10:00).
During the IE Day Poster Sessions, the posters are presented in live pitches (via Zoom) and the poster presenters will be present in the WONDER networking area at assigned times. The pitches and interactions take place in two sessions based on time-zones: one for Asia-Pacific and another one for Africa-Europe-Americas. Please see the detailed program for poster session details and subscription to the poster pitch rooms!
So, in short:
- Sign up to one of the poster sessions.
- Listen to 3 min poster pitches from poster presenters
- Interact with the poster presenters in our Wonder Room
- Vote for your three favorite posters!
Link to Miro board with all posters arranged into groups
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A Century of Building Dynamics and Its Resource and Environmental Impacts in China Qiance Liu, Gang Liu
The last few decades have eye-witnessed a rapid construction of buildings in China under the powerful drivers of urbanization, and the building stocks are expected to continually grow in the future. The growth of buildings has caused and will continue to cause, on the one hand, huge billion tons of resource consumption (e.g., iron and steel, cement, sand, and gravel, etc.) and on the other, massive greenhouse gas emissions. To meet the SDG-13 and carbon neutral, accounting the building dynamics and corresponding resource and environmental impacts especially in China shows high significance in providing data basis for policymakers in the building sector owing to the important position of Chinese buildings both to China and the world. This study has conducted a retrospect and prospect accounting of Chinese building flows and stocks (F&S) from 1950 to 2050 in mainland China at the province level by dynamic material flow analysis (dMFA) method. The construction materials consumption and indirect carbon emission were also counted with the building stock dynamics. We found that the floor area per capita (FAPC) of China had increased from less than 10 m2/cap in 1950 finally to 73 m2/cap in 2050. Jiangsu took the largest proportion of total floor area (10%) among all provinces in recent years. From 2017 to 2050, annual 4 billion tons of construction materials (i.e., cement 0.55 billion, iron and steel 0.18 billion tons, and timber 0.02 billion tons per year) will be demanded and a total of 78.4 billion tons will be demolished. For carbon emission, accumulated indirect carbon emission of Chinese building dynamics historically accounted 14% of China’s total carbon emission by 2016. Ideally, an indirect carbon emission reduction potential of 8 billion CO2 equivalents (CO2eq) totally will occur from 2017 to 2050 where iron and steel production accounts for 60%.
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A GIS-based Bottom-up Building Archetype Development Approach for the Middle Eastern Building Stock Sahin Akin, Niko Heeren, Edgar Hertwich
Globally, residential buildings have a significant potential where greenhouse gas emissions can be reduced by lowering the energy and material demands. Bottom-up building stock modeling approaches facilitate detecting these demands and can be applied in various dimensions by taking individual building characteristics into account. However, it is not feasible to model and simulate every single building in a country’s stock in detail. Archetype modeling is a widely implemented method used in bottom-up approaches, categorizing similar buildings based on different factors under overarching representative types and extrapolating them across country or region levels. In this way, the number of buildings in focus decreased by preserving their notable characteristics. However, identifying archetypes for broader extents is often a challenging and complex process considering that residential buildings differ across countries and are highly dependent on the localized characteristics. These characteristics are shaped by the complicated interplay of physical (i.e., climate, local materials, topography), technological, economic, societal, and political factors. The representativeness of archetypes is crucial for reflecting the emissions rooted in countries’ building stock and is directly proportional to how successfully they address these factors. A more facilitating methodology for characterization factor identification in archetype development is needed to represent broader scales better. On the other hand, while several established archetype models representing the European and Northern American building stock exist, the modeling attempts are not resonated well in the Middle Eastern region. The Middle East hosts many oil-producing countries, and fossil-fuel-based energy sources are quite common and cheaper. Considering the increasing population rates, abnormalities in climate, and overheating in the buildings due to global warming, the region’s building stock is required to be holistically examined with the help of good archetype models. GIS environments offer multifaceted and geo-spatially linked data compilation, query, management, and visualization features that may be a guiding platform to lower the complexity of archetype development and characterization issues for the region. The study discusses the possibilities and advantages of GIS environments’ advanced data handling and visualization capabilities that may facilitate the archetype creation processes over a case study for the Middle East region. In this regard, the regions’ specific population, GDP, climate characteristics, residential building densities, primary construction materials are compiled, stored in different layers, and visualized in a GIS platform as the main drivers of the archetype characterization process. The presented approach provides an integrated platform where various data types can be stored, filtered, and visualized in different layers simultaneously and may help to find similarities and dissimilarities between each pair of building characteristics across countries to support archetype development processes.
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Appending material flows to the National Energy Modeling System (NEMS) for projecting the physical economy of the United States Kaixin Huang
Energy system optimization models (ESOM) simulate energy and emissions changes under different economic and technological scenarios or prospective policy cases. ESOMs and larger integrated assessment models (IAMs) are increasingly being used to project future physical resource demands, but the integration of (non‐energy) physical resource flows or life cycle data into IAMs is far from complete. In this work we demonstrate a method to harness results from the National Energy Modeling System developed by Energy Information Administration (EIA), combined with imputed commodity prices from the UN COMTRADE database, in order to present detailed projections of the physical economy of the United States to 2050. Mass flow results for nine separate scenarios are presented, covering all extraction sectors and manufacturing sectors, with additional disaggregation possible to 4,601 commodities. Results are compared with previous estimates of physical resource flows through the US economy that utilized historical statistics or alternative modeling methods. Overall, the physical resource intensity of the US economy is projected to decrease by an average of 28% per unit of GDP by 2050, suggesting continued decoupling of physical resource use from economic output, but increase by an average of 25% on a per capita basis. These projections have implications for physical resource planning, particularly for materials that have constrained domestic supplies. We also investigate and discuss sources of potential bias and uncertainty in the imputed price estimates and suggest several opportunities to harness the physical resource flow projections for future resource modeling and industrial ecology research.
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Assessment of the Embodied Environmental Impact of a Reinforced Cement Concrete Building Resmond Reaño, Claire Anne P. Gonzales, Maricel A. Eneria, Ma. Hazel T. Castillo, Richard Dean F. Morales, Richelle G. Zafra, Anthony O. Halog
The material production and construction of a building have shown considerable impacts to the environment. This study assessed the environmental impact from raw material acquisition to building construction and delivery of a university office building using life cycle assessment with CML2001 methodology. The building is a reinforced cement concrete building with a wooden roof frame. The results showed that the environmental impacts are dominated by the mining and manufacturing stage because of the high utilization of fossil fuel and other resources in its associated processes. Furthermore, reinforcement steel was found to be the highest contributor to the 10 out of 11 environmental impacts considered because of its energy-intensive processes during the material mining and manufacturing stage. Sensitivity analyses were also conducted in the study in an attempt to decrease the embodied emissions. It was found out that using Roman clay tile roofing instead of corrugated galvanized iron (GI) sheets and utilizing wood for roof trusses and purlins instead of steel would result to significant environmental savings. Meanwhile, varying the CHB wall openings did not produce any significant change in the results.
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Carbon Footprint Reduction Potentials by Urban Lifestyle Changes: Comparison of 52 Japanese Cities and 65 Lifestyle Change Options Ryu Koide, Satoshi Kojima, Keisuke Nansai, Michael Lettenmeier, Kenji Asakawa, Chen Liu, Shinsuke Murakami
Despite the increasing understanding of the carbon footprint heterogeneity between cities and consumer segments, existing research on the footprint reduction potentials of demand-side changes mainly focuses on country- or regional levels and does not consider subnational variations. This study proposes an approach to investigate city-specific carbon footprint reduction potentials and pathways through lifestyle changes. The city-level household carbon footprint of 52 major Japanese cities was estimated based on mixed-unit household consumption data combined with an input-output approach. The city-specific carbon footprint reduction potentials of 65 lifestyle change options covering mobility, housing, food, consumer goods, and leisure were quantified. Possible lifestyle change combinations that can reduce carbon footprints to comply with the 1.5-degree climate target were explored by modeling overlapping impacts between multiple options. Results revealed that city-specific footprint reduction potentials of lifestyle change options differ by as much as a factor of five among cities even within the same country. The scenario analysis of target-achieving pathways suggested that the combination of efficiency (e.g., the introduction of end-use technologies) and sufficiency (e.g., behavioral changes related to consumption amounts and modes) strategies are necessary to achieve decarbonized lifestyles within the climate target.
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Carbon mitigation potential of modular construction: First estimate of the environmental impacts of a modular and reinforced concrete building in Korea Minhee Son, Yongchul Jang, Jooyoung Park
In Korea, the building sector accounts for 7% and 24% of the national direct and total carbon emissions, respectively. Korea’s current carbon mitigation plan targets to reduce 32.7% of the carbon emissions in the building sector by 2030, mainly through energy conservation and enhancing efficiency. However, considering that this plan falls short of achieving carbon neutrality by 2050, circular economy strategies aiming for a resource efficiency across the life cycle of the buildings, should also be pursued in concert. These include reducing the demand, shifting to low-carbon materials, extending the lifetime, and promoting recycling. Among the circular economy strategies, this study focused on modular construction as an prefabrication method to improve productivity, reduce waste, and promote end-of-life recycling. To estimate the environmental benefits of the modular construction, we conducted life cycle assessment of two Gwangyang residential buildings, one steel-frame building designed for stacked, modular construction and the other for conventional reinforced concrete construction. Our preliminary analysis considering production in factories, transport, and construction on site, showed that a modular building would generate 17.5% less carbon emissions compared to its counterpart building. In further studies, more detailed on-site and field data will be gathered to improve the estimation of environmental impacts.
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Circular economy for the process industry through industrial symbiosis (poster session) Francisco Mendez-Alva, Greet van Eetvelde
The circular economy provides a supply and demand balance considering planetary boundaries, and thus it drives industries and societies towards climate and resource neutrality. Fundamental to society, the process industry is vital to produce everyday products; they transform primary resources into raw materials for the manufacturing of virtually any product, from steel for construction and wind turbines to the chemicals used in clothes and food preservation. Building from the traditional waste hierarchy, the circular economy framework is tailored for the process industry to identify in a systematic way circular options within sectors but also to foster cross-sectorial collaboration, including communities. In this poster, industrial sectors are represented as an input-output model with a dual role, on the one hand as a source and on the other as a sink of resources. For each sector, four circular strategies are defined: reduce, reuse, recycle, and recover in nine clustering options (from renewable energy to heating networks) collected from the European sector roadmaps. This way, urban-industrial symbiosis drives circular economy strategies through cross-sectoral exchanges that help to close loops. The source-sink model enables the definition of cluster roadmaps for industrial sites and hubs for circularity and identifies the effort already made as well as ahead to transition into a fully circular economy.
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Circular Economy in the Construction & Demolition Sector: an analysis of enablers and barriers for recycling thermal insulation materials and research agenda Valeria Superti, Tim Forman, Cynthia Houmani, Claudia Binder
Global production and consumption of goods are increasingly unsustainable. In this regard, the Circular Economy (CE) is a model for resource efficiency and waste minimization that supplants the current problematic take-make-waste linear model. Due to its significant impact on the environment, the construction and demolition sector represents an ideal testbed to experiment with, and scale up, CE interventions. Insulating buildings is vital for reducing buildings’ environmental impact by reducing energy demand associated with heating and cooling. However, the composition of performant thermal insulation materials (IMs) poses challenges for their recycling. Research is needed to identify and overcome the barriers obstructing IM circular management. This study examines the drivers of, and barriers to, circular management of expanded polystyrene and stone wool insulation. The research contributes an original analysis of the IM value chain, collecting insights through a literature review, semi-structured interviews, and a workshop. We i) highlight research gaps based on scientific literature, ii) highlight roles and potential agency of actors involved in the value chain of IMs, iii) elicit enablers and barriers for their recycling, iv) suggest interventions for tackling the current challenges faced for the recycling of thermal IMs, and v) put forward a research agenda.
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Decarbonising Kenya’s energy transition through resource-efficient solar energy business models Velma Mukoro
Energy transition in Africa will constitute switching from the predominant model of centralised generation to decentralised generation from renewable energy and distributed storage. The installed capacity of solar photovoltaic in 2040 is expected to reach 320 GW, from 5 GW in 2019. In Kenya, the energy transition rests on the shift from a linear to a circular economy that adopts innovative business models for energy access, grid defection, decarbonisation, and decentralisation. The shift will reduce carbon intensity and environmental impacts and increase resource-efficiency of incumbent business models through the integration of product-service systems; digitalisation; circular value network; and circular finance. For example, greenhouse gas emissions from manufacturing, using and disposing of mini-grids, solar home systems, commercial and utility-scale systems can fall by over 10%, thereby contributing towards SDG 13 ‘Climate Action’. Likewise, depletion of metals and material constituents of solar energy systems can decrease by up to 60% due to high take-back schemes, higher recycling rates, and avoided extraction of virgin materials to promote resource efficiency in line with SDG 12 ‘Responsible Consumption and Production’. Besides, transforming incumbent business models will unlock circular investment and revenue streams within the value network and stimulate economic growth.
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Decentralized water systems adoption’s multi-objective spatial optimization in pursuit of sustainability and resiliency Masoumeh Khalkhali, Bistra Dilkina, Weiwei Mo
Decentralized water systems adoption decisions, such as installing rainwater harvesting and graywater recycling systems, can be made on an individual level by multiple agents, but the outcomes of such decisions are critically interconnected in a complex system with emergent sustainability and resilience properties. We employ a cross-scale optimization approach which searches through many spatial configurations of possible decentralized system adoption choices to characterize the possible best-case outcomes. Each such spatially explicit adoption configuration is evaluated using a holistic water-energy system dynamics model that considers the interactions between centralized and decentralized water systems for the city of Boston, MA. In complex systems such as the one we are tackling, there is no single configuration which maximizes all relevant metrics or objectives. To address this multi-objective optimization problem, we use a Genetic Algorithm (GA) approach to find multiple Pareto optimal solutions that characterize non-dominated tradeoffs between the metrics of interest. It is critical to understand and characterize the possible best-case outcomes (adoption patterns), especially because they might not align with decisions guided by current individual interests. The values achieved for our resilience and sustainability objectives in these optimized adoption scenarios will help support future designs of policy and incentive programs.
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Development of IO-based model for supply chain risk analysis focusing on Disaster risk at mining sites Tomoya Sugiyama, Zhengyang Zhang, Kenichi Nakajima, Kazuyo Matsubae
The large-scale development and diffusion of climate change mitigation technologies is urgently required in our society. These technologies have heightened the need for mineral resources and have shown various negative impacts to the global environment. Behind the supply chain (SC) of mineral resources, mining activities and resource development have resulted in such social risks as human rights abuses and illegal mining. Additionally, environmental risks such as loss of diversity and land-use change around mines is commonplace internationally.
However, the impact of these risk factors on the industrial structure of each country through the SC is not fully understood. For this reason, it was not possible to discuss measures to minimize the impact of SC risks in concrete terms.
The aim of our research is to develop a new model that can analyze mineral resource SC risks that affect the flow of resources in each country and industry through the international SC.
We analyzed the relationship between tailings dam failures in the mining sites and the economic activity during 2010-2020. The results showed that the 5 deaths were associated with the 100 billion dollars of economic activity of the Japanese automobile industry.
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Ecological network analysis of an emergy metabolic system based on input–output tables: Model development and case study for Vienna Oleksandr Galychyn
The rapid population growth accompanied by health concerns and other global environmental problems in cities and regions has boosted the popularity of the ‘urban metabolism’ topic among academics and policy makers. As a major city with a strong reputation for environmental stewardship and liveability, Vienna plays a key role in promoting efficient and sustainable resource production and consumption including how it interacts with other regions. Combining emergy input-output with ecological network analysis allows researchers to study hierarchy of sectors and functional relationships along all possible metabolic paths of ecological and socio-economic flows exchange in urban economy and between urban economy and environment.
In this study, using emergy input-output table of Vienna, we introduced a model that combines of emergy input-output model with ecological network analysis. Then, using system-level analyses (flow and contribution analyses) we determined the status of the system components. Finally, the critical components responsible for emergy consumption were identified using pairwise control and utility analyses. The results provide insight into indirect effects of internal metabolic processes on the hierarchy and role of each component in urban metabolic system. This model will also provide support for city managers and policy makers to guide resource consumption towards an efficient and sustainable urban metabolic system.
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Energy cost of centralized and decentralized water supply: Assessment of energy embodied in water metabolic flows of two cities in Gyeonggi, Korea Yiseul Hong, Jooyoung Park
Korea’s water supply system mainly adopts centralized, hard-path options such as inter-basin transfer and reservoirs. While continuous development and expansion of water supply networks have improved water access of the country, Korea also faces challenges with regard to its network maintenance and resilience to intensified variability in precipitation patterns. This is particularly the case of Gyeonggi Province, the most populous province surrounding the capital that relies on a large-scale water abstraction infrastructure. Among the cities in Gyeonggi Province, Suwon is reported to having the highest water risk in terms of its vulnerability to climate change, and Paju is estimated to experience a shortage of domestic and industrial water by 2025. To explore efficient water management options for these two cities, this study first evaluates the pattern of water metabolism and then energy embodied in these water metabolic flows. By focusing on energy embodied in water flows, we particularly aim to delineate energy cost of supplying water through centralized water infrastructure versus decentralized options such as rainwater harvesting, greywater use, and the use of treated wastewater. The study will help policy decision-makers to identify energy-efficient water supply options for water-scarce cities, and present examples to expand urban metabolism framework considering water-energy nexus.
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Environmental Inequity Hidden in Skewed Water Pollutant – Value Flows via Interregional Trade in China Xin Tian, Yiling Xiong
With the increasing frequency of commodity flows in China, pollutant leakage and the uneven distribution of economic benefits further enlarge the preexisting economic disparities among regions and trigger regional environmental inequities. To understand the status quo of the inequities in China, we calculated the regional environmental inequity index of thirty provinces in terms of water pollution and value added, and further investigated the flow and important paths across provinces and sectors by combining multi–regional input–output analysis and structural path analysis. The results showed northeastern and part of central and northwestern regions suffered from the most serious environmental inequity, while the eastern and southern coastal provinces benefited the most from interregional trade in 2015. Such inequities were driven by the inconsistent net flows of water pollutants and value added, and could be explained by the uneven spatial distribution of key sectors (i.e., agriculture, food and tobacco, construction and hotel and restaurant). Thereinto, the primary flowing path is that high water-polluting but low value-added agricultural products produced by inland provinces are processed for foods, ultimately consumed by developed southeastern region. Our results provide an empirical basis upon which policy makers can promote coordinated and sustainable development among regions in China.
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Estimating Physical Composition of Municipal Solid Waste in China by Applying Artificial Neural Network Method Shijun Ma, Zhou Chuanbin
Physical composition of municipal solid waste (PCMSW) is the fundamental parameter in domestic waste management; however, high fidelity, wide coverage, upscaling, and year continuous data sets of PCMSW in China are insufficient. A traceable and predictable methodology for estimating PCMSW in China is established for the first time by analyzing 503 PCMSW data sets of 135 prefecture-level cities in China. A hyperspherical transformation method was used to eliminate the constant sum constraint in statistically analyzing PCMSW data. Moreover, a back-propagation (BP) neural network methodology was applied to establish quantitative models between city-level PCMSW and its socio-economic factors, including city size, per capita gross regional product, geographical location, gas coverage rate, and year. Results show that (1) national-level PCMSW in 2017 was estimated as organic fraction (53.7%), ash and stone (8.3%), paper (16.9%), plastic and rubber (13.6%), textile (2.3%), wood (2.2%), metal (0.6%), glass (1.5%), and others (1.0%); (2) organic fraction, paper, and plastics showed an increasing trend from 1990 to 2017, while ash and stone decreased significantly; (3) organic fractions in East, North, and Central-South China were higher than those in other regions. This enables us to fill data gap in the practice of municipal solid waste management in China.
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Evaluating circularity in the U.S. Steel Industry with hybrid input-output tables Elizabeth Wachs, Colin McMillan, Tina Kaarsberg, Kara Podkaminer
While some aspects of the steel industry already are quite circular (e.g. 95% of the steel in cars is recycled) much more could be done to achieve circular economy (CE) goals, key for decarbonizing industry and economies at large. Input-output (IO) analysis is widely used to understand potential impacts of expanded CE strategies in industry. Because we lack physical data showing how materials are used in the economy, to date circularity has largely been assessed based on flows of money rather than materials and energy. Monetary accounting alone fails to account adequately for waste flows and requires multiple assumptions and unit conversions, adding uncertainty. However, coverage of industry by IO tables in physical units to-date has been spotty due to the high cost of tracking goods in multiple, complex units of measure. We develop hybrid IO (HIO) tables fully consistent with official U.S. data sources for evaluating circularity in the iron and steel industry. The tables will be an important tool for understanding material flows, critical resources, resilience of supply chains, wastes and circularity of other industries.
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From efficiency to equity: Changing patterns of China's regional transportation systems from an in-use steel stocks perspective Xin Tian, Shuntian Xu, Huaxuan Wang
Transportation plays an important role in boosting the economy. Rapid development of China's transportation system recently has driven a continuous accumulation of steel. In this study, we estimated the in-use steel stocks of 34 infrastructures and vehicles in four subsystems (railway, intercity road, urban road, and subway) in 31 provinces of China from 1990 to 2019 based on a bottom-up approach. The results show that China’s in-use steel stock in transportation system increased 13-fold and six changing patterns are identified. The Gini coefficient curve of the provinces’ stocks shows an inverted “U” shape over time, indicating a shrinking regional gap in recent years; this reflects a transition from efficiency to equity. We also measured the steel stock productivity (GDP per stock) in different regions and observed its diverse evolution types, which can cause changes in the nationwide distribution of stock productivity (currently high in the east and low in the west). For eastern regions, vehicles act as the main growth point, while western regions are vigorously developing infrastructure. Our results help to illustrate the development status and spatial structural distribution of China's transportation system, and will facilitate improved management of efficiency problems and future challenges in China’s transformation and development.
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How can we leverage the Circular Economy to support sustainable land use? Qian Zhang, Ishan Tripathi, Thomas Froese
The Circular Economy (CE) is a sustainability paradigm that aims to minimize the input of virgin resources and output of wastes by closing material life-cycle loops. However, questions remain about the role of land within the CE framework and the framework’s implications on land-use policy. This study explores the potential of the CE framework to support sustainable land-use through qualitative research methods. First, it introduces a conceptual illustration of the traditional-linear land-use practices and its limitations. Second, it provides a systematic review of the connections between land use and the CE concepts, followed by systems-mapping of successes and gaps in the existing literature. Third, it illustrates the extension of the conceptual CE framework to include a land dimension, showing the circular nature of land functions. Fourth, case studies of the 4R (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, and Recover) strategies are discussed to provide feasible and proven approaches for policymakers to enhance sustainable land use management in the CE framework. In conclusion, this study suggests a paradigm shift and the potential benefits of considering the interactive two-in-one role of soil and space management for the sustainable land use agenda of the CE implementation.
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How can we take advantage of industry data sources to assist Industrial Ecology Community to better define materials and building assemblies for use in MFA and MSA studies? Kimberlee Zamora
Since construction practices are regionally driven, it is difficult to describe patterns of resource consumption. When conducting research for material flow analysis (MFA) and material stock analysis (MSA) in the built environment, there is a dearth of data to describe expected building material composition. It is ideal for IE Researchers to work with industry to access building data to inform MFA and MSA studies. One option, RS Means, is an industry tool referenced for estimating costs in construction projects throughout North America. The data are obtainable in several ways: square foot models, assembly and unit material types to calculate regional construction cost defined by building typologies. Construction estimators can input building properties in square foot cost models and output expected materials and costs related to the building use. There is an opportunity to develop and model data for MFA and MSA studies populated with industry sources thereby engaging collaboration and enabling more avenues for data collection. If IE researchers and construction industries are communicating with common metrics this may enable a better connection between industry data and IE research data informing the IE community thus contributing to a more circular economy.
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How product design can influence product recyclability – a new assessment method based on statistical entropy. Caroline Roithner, Helmut Rechberger, Oliver Cencic
The European Union’s Circular Economy Action Plan (CEAP) has put a strong focus on product design and manufacturing, as it became evident that recycling efforts increase with the complexity of products. To bring transparency in product design and its impacts on recycling, the assessment of product recyclability is highly relevant. Current recyclability assessment methods neglect to evaluate products from the product design perspective, or base on parameters that limit product comparability. Thus, we developed a new assessment method based on statistical entropy that reflects product recyclability at the stage of product design. The key point of the assessment method presented is the consideration of fundamental product information, namely material composition and product structure, which enable a profound assessment of products and further facilitate comparisons between different products. The novel Relative product-inherent recyclability (RPR) metric would bring important insights in product design and recyclability respectively, and further help to promote the European Union’s implementation of the CEAP.
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Integrated MFA/BIM analysis to evaluate the circularity of the Italian brick industry Claudia Sartori, Alessio Miatto, Thomas Graedel, Shoshanna Saxe
Clay brick masonry is a vernacular construction technique; today it continues to be used extensively in Italy and many other countries around the globe. Despite the essential role clay bricks play in construction, and the release of atmospheric pollutants associated to their production, they are often overlooked in the environmental literature, and sound production data are hard to obtain. This study integrates a top-down material flow analysis (MFA) and a bottom-up building information modeling (BIM) to assess the quantity and use cases of clay bricks and terracotta tiles used for construction in Italy. Material flows for these products were traced from cradle to grave in Italy in 2006, 2011, and 2016. Residential building archetypes were modeled in BIM and used to create material intensity database to investigate functional uses of bricks. Hollow bricks used as infills in external walls and load-bearing bricks were the main manufactured products for all the period of analysis, followed by bricks used in internal walls and floor-forming bricks. In all cases, maintenance and refurbishment of existing buildings was the primary end-use category. From 2006 to 2016, the Italian brick production shrank four-fold, from 20.6 Tg to 5.1 Tg, while direct carbon dioxide emissions from the calcination of calcium carbonate during firing decreased from 2.4 Tg to 0.5 Tg. Functional recycling is rare, and this poses serious challenges to the circularity of the construction sector. The results demonstrate that the integration of MFA and BIM approaches allows for the identification of end-uses, thus enabling targeted recycling strategies for the promotion of a circular building sector.
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Is there room for waste-to-energy in the recycling society? A mathematical optimization approach Robert Istrate, Jose-Luis Galvez-Martos, Javier Dufour
Moving to a more circular economy calls for ambitious goals in terms of municipal solid waste (MSW) recycling. Under this context, many questions rise about the potential impact of recycling targets on the waste-to-energy (WTE) industry. In this work we aim at evaluating the role of WTE for MSW management in Madrid (Spain) over the period 2020–2040. To do this, we developed an optimization framework which facilitates the identification of optimal MSW management pathways according to economic and environmental objectives. For the case study of Madrid, the main assumption was that the separate collection rates will increase significantly (e.g. up to 90% for packaging waste by 2040). Despite that, we found that a high share of incineration (38% of the MSW generated over the entire period) is required in order to achieve the minimum MSW management cost. However, when the goal is to minimize the life cycle climate change impact (LCCCI), incineration is substituted by gasification (25% share over the entire period). Anaerobic digestion plays a relevant role under the minimum LCCI pathway with a share of 28%. Our results indicate that recycling targets do not necessarily compromise the techno-economic viability of WTE technologies.
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Key sectors in the socio-economic development of the Portuguese economy between 1995 and 2017 Sónia Cunha, Paulo Ferrão
Between growing environmental concerns and the need to design resilient economies, the understanding of socio-economic metabolism has become increasingly more important. This work focuses on the study of the changes in the material and economic flows between economic sectors throughout the various stages of economic development in the Portuguese economy between 1995 and 2017.
To have a complete picture of the socio-economic metabolism, the work first analyses the monetary flows of 35 economic sectors, followed by an analysis of the material flows. Having determined the relevant economic sectors, the flows of these sectors are then observed in detail. The monetary flows analyzed were collected from the MIOTs from OECD. The material flows, on the other hand, were calculated using an innovative method for the compilation on PIOTs, based on MIOTs and additional physical data collected from official sources.
The results show that the services and construction sector played central roles in both the economic growth and the material inputs in the economy. The flows between the sectors highlight the close relation between the use of materials by the construction sector and the services sectors.
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Life cycle assessment of a university office building and the measuring effect of material recycling through sensitivity analysis Resmond Reaño, Miguel Carlo S. Alviar, Maricel A. Eneria, Ma. Hazel T. Castillo, Richard Dean F. Morales, Richelle G. Zafra, Anthony O. Halog
Emissions brought by the activities and processes in the construction industry has created inevitable harm to the environment. Life cycle assessment methodology can provide vital information on the embodied emissions of the building and its impact during its life cycle. A newly built office building located in the university was assessed based on CML2001 impact categories. The results show that the manufacturing stage contribute greater than the other building phases in four out of seven impact categories: eutrophication, ozone layer depletion, photochemical oxidation, and terrestrial ecotoxicity while the use phase contribute to the other three including the global warming potential. Steel followed by concrete pose the greatest contribution to all the selected impact categories. Through the sensitivity analysis, the study was able to show the effectiveness of using recycled structural steel and reinforced steel in mitigating the adverse environmental effect of building construction.
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LINKING FARMS: TOWARDS CIRCULAR ECONOMY Gemma Cervantes
Trying to help agricultural sector to change from a linear production system to a circular one, this poster presents the study carried out with three experimental farms in the state of Guanajuato (Mexico). The farms were diagnosed qualitatively and quantitatively, the valuation of wastes already done in the farms was detected, and new valuations were proposed for each of them. An eco-industrial agricultural network was proposed between the three farms, made up of 11 entities, 7 different industrial sectors, 8 existing synergies, 18 proposed synergies, 22 different recovered or reused waste, 3 new entities, 6 new products. With this network, a solution is proposed for 8 of the 10 most problematic farm wastes and contributes to closing the material cycle in them, social relationships are enhanced among responsible and workers of different farms and also a network of farms that moves toward circular economy is proposed and initiated. The results have been approved by the University authorities and some of the proposed synergies have been started yet.
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Measuring material services at the macro level - a conceptual challenge Mihály Dombi, Andrea Karcagi-Kováts, Aldebei Faisal Mohammad Fahid, Piroska Harazin
Examination of material services is an emerging topic of the research on socio-economic metabolism. Studies dealing with particular processes, e.g., illumination (Whiting et al.,2019), transportation (Doris et al., 2021), have become central last few years. However, the measurement and conceptualization of the stock-flow-service nexus at the macro scale are immature yet. On the one hand, it is at the heart of the future environmental policies, as economic context is determined to a high extent (e.g., taxation, planning, subsidies, trade policy). On the other hand, this effort is extremely challenging due to aggregated nature of the economic, social, and ecological processes. In our poster, we firstly outline previous attempts on macro-level measurements of the services and ultimate ends. Then, we present case studies on candidate non-monetary indicators (i.e., deducted material, exergy, and time-budget) and discuss their advantages and shortcomings.
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Moving beyond averages with unrestricted inventory and reduced scope in the construction sector Sergio Pacca, Fernanda Belizario da Silva, Lidiane Santana Oliveira, Daniel Costa Reis, Katia Punhagui, Vanderley M. John
The Construction Environmental Performance Information System is a framework considering uncertainty since the inventory phase. The objective of the system is improving the environmental performance of the construction supply chain. Therefore, the system combines generic life cycle inventory data and data collected from producers along the supply chain, which captures the variability among manufacturers producing the same product. This environmental performance benchmark may be used to support procurement decisions rewarding producers with superior environmental performance. The system adopts a simplified scope so that firms get involved in original data collection. We have started a short-term pilot project with a limited scope (energy and carbon dioxide flows), which facilitates the acquisition of data from the Brazilian industry and notices its technological variability. In addition, it allows composing representative samples for environmental performance benchmarks. Moreover, such issues of chief societal concern are highly affected by the construction supply chain which enhances the role of the construction sector in improving its environmental performance. Finally, energy and CO2 flows are easily accounted by the companies rendering comparable and meaningful results. We expect that firms from the construction sector will engage in this effort and take advantage of the results to undertake solutions with greater efficiency. Our preliminary list of products includes sand, aggregates, cement, quicklime, mortar, concrete, concrete blocks, ceramic roof tiles, ceramic blocks, steel rebar, and wood. The approach has been tested before in a project commissioned by the Brazilian concrete block association. Results of such innitiative represent the variability within blocks with distinct strengthen classes. Uncertainties in the system will be represented by means of a statistical analysis providing a complete coverage of all interactions of parameters and considering multiple routes for specific unit processes represented in the system.
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Pathways for sustainable material use and GHG emission reductions from housing stock evolution in US counties to 2060 Peter Berrill, Edgar Hertwich
As a contribution to this session we demonstrate results of a housing stock and material flow model for all counties in the United States. We describe a novel method for generating building stock and archetype characterizations at a local level, combining data from multiple sources at various geographical resolution, and using a sampling algorithm to generate representative samples of the residential building stock. These samples are then used to estimate building stock and archetype characteristics at any geographic resolution included in the source data. Material and GHG intensities are estimated for 50 building archetypes defined by building type, size, foundation type, stories, and main framing material. Weighted average intensities are then calculated for three main housing types in each county based on the local prevalence of each archetype. We combine the county material and greenhouse gas intensity data with our county-level housing stock model to estimate material flows and emissions associated with housing construction and demolition in all US counties from 2020 to 2060. Floor area per capita, material flows and GHG emissions can be reduced by increasing the share of smaller and multifamily homes in new construction. We use insights gained during this research to reflect on some of the discussion questions outlines for this session. Benefits and wider potential of bottom-up material flow analyses include identification of material demand and waste generation at local levels, which can enable circular use of materials and building components, and identification of lowest-intensity archetypes which can be prioritized to minimize emissions from new construction. Data gaps include material and GHG intensity characterization of high-rise building archetypes, and emissions from construction site energy use and transport.
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Price variance leads to significant uncertainty in Hybrid LCA footprints. Arthur Jakobs, Simon Schulte, Stefan Pauliuk
Price information plays a crucial role in Hybrid LCA, linking physical process data to monetary input-output models. Prices however, are subject to market dynamics and myriad trading relations, leading to different prices for the same commodity across supply chains, or even between the different layers of the same supply chain. Given the linear relationship between the inputs into a process’ supply chain from the input-output model and the price of it’s reference product, the variability of commodity prices directly results in added uncertainty of the product’s environmental footprint. This uncertainty has so far only been assessed using non-process-specific theoretical price uncertainties. Here we use international trading statistics from BACI to model process specific commodity price distributions, and use these in an integrated hybrid model of the process database ecoinvent with the EE-MRIO database EXIOBASE. With this model we analyse the effect of price variance on the footprint of Swiss household consumption. We find that the variance of the IO part of the hybrid footprint has a 95% confidence interval of (-28%,+90%) relative to the median. Although the variance is calculated for a specific case, the magnitude highlights the importance of taking price variance into account when performing hybrid-LCA.
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Recycling of lithium-ion batteries using pyrometallurgical technologies: a life cycle assessment Mohammad Ali Rajaeifar, Oliver Heidrich, Marco Raugei, Bernhard Steubing, Anthony Hartwell, Paul Anderson
The current electric vehicle revolution relies on Lithium-Ion Batteries (LIBs) for which a set of particular materials are needed. On the other hand, the growing demand for EVs will further result in a huge number of LIBs end up at their end-of-life (EoL) and require appropriate recycling. Recycling could be a promising practice to supply a part of raw materials needed for LIBs and avoid environmental impacts of their disposal. Among different recycling processes available for LIBs, pyrometallurgical processes are used in the market. However, very little is known about their environmental and energy impacts. In the current research, global warming impacts (GWP) of a commercial pyrometallurgical recycling process, i.e. Ultra-High Temperature (UHT) furnace (Sc-3), is calculated and compared with a novel and emerging battery recycling technology, called as Direct Current (DC) plasma smelting technology (Sc-1). Since the impact of pre-treatment on LIB recycling is a current debate in academia, this study also considers the impact of a series of pre-treatment processes on batteries prior to the DC plasma furnace (Sc-2). The LCA performed in this study considered the recycling in both ‘open-loop’ and ‘closed-loop’ recycling occasions. The results showed that shifting from the current pyrometallurgical technologies toward the novel DC plasma technology could effectively reduce the GWP of the recycling process by up to a factor of 5 (when employing pre-treatment, as is the case with Sc-2). This could be very interesting for the current pyrometallurgical approaches in the recycling of LIBs and also for the other approaches that aim to employ a pre-treatment stage in the recycling.
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Residential building LCAs from the developing world: How much do we know? Aishwarya Iyer, Narasimha Rao, Edgar Hertwich
The United Nations classifies 123 countries in the world as “developing”. These countries house more than 80% of the world’s population. Globally, the residential sector is responsible for 40% of energy consumption and 30% of GHG emissions, with much higher percentages in developing regions. These regions are also different in that almost 1 billion people reside in slums. Understanding residential buildings in developing countries is key to identifying GHG mitigation strategies and combatting climate change.
Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a tool routinely used to estimate different types of impacts from a product’s lifetime. Currently, the vast majority of residential building LCAs and review studies focus on developed regions. Less than 25% of the reviews look beyond China and India from the developing world. The purpose of this study is to review residential building LCA literature from all developing countries, and identify common characteristics, norms, and gaps in data and literature. We collected around 100 relevant studies and classified them by their LCA scope, data sources, reproducibility and major findings. We found that while the building geometry always comes from local empirical data, other embodied energy data often come from a mix of local and international sources. Use-phase cooling behavior of residents is often taken from local observations, and could be a useful data source for global studies. We identified common, critical data gaps for most countries, but found that important data could be retrieved from related fields for some. India, Brazil and China were found to have the most relevant studies, with the highest reproducibility. 3 broad typologies of buildings- formal, semi-formal or low-quality formal, and informal were identified.
Our review summarizes residential building data and characteristics, and analyzes LCA studies and results from developing countries. It also details data gaps and potential areas for future research.
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Scale tool to enable sustainable implementation of biotechnology in the built environment Layla van Ellen, Nichi Patsorelli, Ben Bridgens, Neil Burford, Oliver Heidrich
Driven by environmental concerns, there is increasing research interest in using biotechnology in the construction and operation of the built environment. Although biotechnologies lend themselves well to enable a circular economy, there is still a knowledge gap between the emerging fields of biotechnology in the built environment and industrial ecology.
The poster presents an analysis and proposes methods for co-design of transdisciplinary research with a low technology readiness level. In Industrial Ecology (IE), tools such as Material Flow Analysis (MFA) present relationships between materials and different application systems to facilitate a circular economy at various scales. However, MFA and other IE tools such as Input-Output analysis are often too advanced and require expert knowledge to be applied to emerging and small scale research. This research suggests a ‘scale tool’ to enable the mapping of potential scaling up strategies for research that lacks clear applications. The tool is developed and tested in a brainstorm session with an interdisciplinary group aiming at advancing the use of biotechnology in the built environment. This case study shows how the scale tool could be used to enable better communications between the different research fields and subsequently suggests the next steps towards circular solutions.
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Sharing Economy Rebound- The Case of Peer-2-Peer Sharing of Food Waste Tamar Meshulam, David Font Vivanco, Vered Blass, Tamar Makov
The Sharing Economy is commonly assumed to promote sustainable consumption and improve material efficiency through better utilization of existing product stocks. Yet the cost-savings and convenience of using sharing economy platforms can ultimately stimulate additional demand for products and services. As a result, some or even all of the expected environmental benefits attributed to sharing could be negated, a phenomenon known as Rebound Effect. Relying on a unique dataset covering close to 1.1 million exchanges on a Peer-to-Peer (P2P), food sharing platform, we use a combination of Environmentally Extended Input Output analysis (EEIO), geo-spatial network analysis, and econometric modeling to quantify how much of the expected environmental benefits attributed to sharing are negated via rebound effects. We find that over the 3 years examined, sharing edible yet unwanted food with other peers was associated with nearly 1,800 tons of avoided CO2-eq. However, our results suggest that over 80% of these avoided emissions were negated as platform users re-spent the money saved by sharing on other goods and services. Our results demonstrate the importance of considering the potential implications rebound effects might have on the efficacy of leveraging the sharing economy to elevate environmental burdens.
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South Korea’s management of plastics: Establishing plastics physical accounts for the year 2017-2019 Yongchul Jang, Jooyoung Park, Minhee Son
As one of the world’s top producers and top consumers of plastics, Korea has been experiencing problems with regard to the management of waste plastics since 2018, such as collection service disruptions, illegal abandonment and exports of waste. To gain a complete understanding of Korea’s contemporary management of plastics, this study quantified national plastic flows across production, use, and end-of-life management between 2017 and 2019. In 2017, Korea produced 17.5 million metric tons of plastic resins, more than half of which was exported, and consumed 7 million metric tons of plastic products including 3.2 million metric tons of packaging. On a per-capita basis, Korea’s plastic consumption and waste generation were higher than that of other major economies, such as Japan, China, the United States, and Europe, which implies considerable potential for plastic consumption reduction. Despite the high level of waste generation, Korea has increased the level of material recycling while minimizing the landfill rate by implementing various policies, such as waste levies, voluntary agreements, and extended producer responsibility. For more sustainable plastic management, Korea must make additional effort to reduce plastic consumption and promote high-quality recycling, for example through circular design, business models with less packaging, and advanced technologies.
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Spatial-Temporal Evolution and Influencing Factors of Industrial Green Innovation Efficiency in the Yangtze River Economic Zone 娜 赵, 马大来
Based on provincial panel data of 11 provinces of Yangtze River Economic Zone in 2011-2018 years,this paper uses the Super- SBM method to analyze the industrial green innovation efficiency of Yangtze River Economic Zone,At the same time , on the basis of the spatial-temporal evolution analysis of industrial green innovation efficiency , we use the spatial econometric model to make an empirical study about the influencing factors of industrial green innovation efficiency .The results show that the industrial green innovation efficiency of the Yangtze River Economic Zone has not reached the DEA effective state, and there is some room for improvement.Regionally, the downstream is the highest,the upstream is the second , the middle is the lowest;There are great differences of the industrial green innovation efficiency in different provinces, Shanghai, Zhejiang, Anhui, Chongqing, Hunan and Sichuan are more ideal, while other provinces are not. The results of spatial-temporal evolution show that, the efficiency of industrial green innovation in the Yangtze River economic belt shows the spatial distribution characteristics of "high at both ends and low in the middle ",The results of the spatial economic model show that,in addition to the influence of energy consumption structure is not significant, enterprise scale, industrial structure, financial development, degree of marketization and environmental regulation can significantly promote industrial green innovation efficiency, while economic growth has obvious inhibitory effect.
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Steel stocks and flows of global merchant fleets as material base of international trade from 1980-2050 Xianghui Kong, K Feng
The booming international trade drives the expansion of merchant fleets that relies heavily on steel and other materials. This study presents the first analysis of steel stocks and flows of global ships from 1980 to 2019, and further project the generation of steel scraps from global shipbreaking by 2050 under five shared socioeconomic pathways (SSPs). We found that the in-use stock of steel on ships in developing economies increase 4.24 times in the study period, as the main drivers of the global ship stock growth. However, a transition from oil tankers to container ships and bulk carriers tended to reduce the in-use steel stocks due to their smaller steel intensity. The rapid increase of ship stocks was followed by booming generation of scraped steel, reached 9.9 Mt/year in 2019. Based on SSP scenarios, our projections indicate the steel from scrapped ships worldwide will increase by around 4-fold by 2050, which may impose a great challenge on material recycling coordination, thus requires long-term planning of ship recycling facility development. Our results call for sustainable methods to recycle steel to realize the steel development of circular economy. Our study provides insights for the steel waste and recycling management of end-of-life ships worldwide.
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Sustainability key performance indicators based on industrial ecology practices for the manufacturing industries in order to sustain provisioning services Shahbaz Abbas, Anthony Halog
Provisioning services are one of the significant type of ecosystem services indicating a rational human-nature relationship. Provisioning services have an imperative impact in the sustainability research due to their substantial utilization by providing water, food, fuel and other resources for the survival of mankind. However, the extensive consumption of these resources particularly in the manufacturing industries has developed a risk for the sustainability of these resources as the manufacturing industries consume more than a single provisioning services’. Consequently, it will impact people, industries and the ecosystem along with creating a disruption in the stock-flow-service nexus. In order to leverage this cascade, principles of industrial ecology and circular economy if implemented properly in the manufacturing industries can support to sustain provisioning services. Depending upon the type of provision service, a single model cannot be effective for all manufacturing industries. However, certain common sustainability key performance indicators (KPIs) based on industrial ecology practices can be implemented to all manufacturing industries that are dependent upon provisioning services. This study has focused sugar and textile industries that are dependent upon extensive availability of provision services such as crops (sugarcane, cotton) and water. The KPIs have been developed to measure the circular economy practices in the sugar and textile industry. In addition, what sustainable options can be adopted at the consumers’ end, have been discussed in this study as their proactive contribution in sustaining human-nature relationship.
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SWOT Analysis on End-of-Life Vehicle Recycling in Developing Countries Solange Ayuni Numfor, Geoffrey Barongo Omosa , Zhengyang Zhang, Kazuyo Matsubae
The poor treatment of end-of-life vehicles (ELVs) is a major problem in most developing countries. ELVs are stockpiled in police station yards, abandoned on the streets, backyards, and in other areas. The United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) has stressed that it is vital to establish a circular economy by promoting recycling and recycling industries in developing countries to alleviate the many serious waste management system pressures in those countries. The establishment of proper ELV recycling systems will reduce environmental pollution, and provide a vital source of secondary raw materials for use in industry.
We conducted a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) analysis to identify the challenges and opportunities for recycling ELVs in developing countries. We considered the following eight developing countries: Cameroon, Kenya, Egypt, Nigeria, India, Mexico, Malaysia and South Africa. We reviewed scientific papers and reports, identified common parameters for each SWOT component applicable in these countries, and assigned ratings ranging from 0 to 2, where 0 is “none”, 1 is “some”, and 2 is “considerable”. The developing countries with emerging economies showed greater strengths, while Nigeria and the other developing countries indicated significant weaknesses. All countries were deemed to have considerable opportunities with regard to their potential for ELV recycling, and were shown to be susceptible to the specific threats identified. The major challenge faced in these countries is how to collect and manage ELVs in a systematic manner, with steps to reprocess the vehicles in order to maximize the economic benefits from the recovery of materials and parts/components while fulfilling the environmental regulations. The opportunities include low labor cost for recycling businesses, and the large market size. These countries are mostly lacking in terms of ELV policy formulation. It is imperative for the governing authorities to ensure effective ELV policies, and to promote cooperation among stakeholders.
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Trade structure and risk transmission in the international automotive Li-ion batteries trade Xiaoqian Hu, Chao Wang
Lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) are an essential part for electric vehicles (EVs) and have experienced rapid growth with the strong demand for EVs. Concerns over the sustainable supply of EV-LIBs have been voiced, but only a few studies have investigated the international trade in EV-LIBs, which has a significant impact on EV production in the complicated and volatile international trade environment. To fill this gap, this study investigates the international EV-LIB trade from a dynamic perspective. First, the dynamic structural evolution of the EV-LIB trade from 2012 to 2019 is explored from three perspectives, i.e., backbone structure, geospatial characteristics and trade community, by constructing a weighted and directed network. Second, the hidden systemic risks in the international EV-LIB trade are revealed by the proposed trade network risk transmission (TNRT) model in two supply shortage scenarios. The results show a heterogeneous structure in the backbone network, and the trade barycenter is transitioning from Asia to Europe. In addition, a “robust-yet-fragile” characterization is revealed in the global EV-LIB trade network, and the hidden risks in leading EV-LIB exporter nodes and trade edges are uncovered. The findings will support authorities seeking effective strategies to manage the EV-LIB trade and build a more resilient trade system.
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Uncertainty and variability in carbon footprint of hydrogen-powered aviation T. Reed Miller, Edgar Hertwich, Marian Chertow
The civil aviation industry is responding to considerable pressure to reduce its carbon footprint through a variety of mechanisms, chiefly technological innovation and carbon offsets. One proposal that has resurged in popularity is the use of hydrogen as an aviation fuel. Recently, Airbus revealed three Zero-E (“zero-emission”) concept aircrafts, intended to run on liquid hydrogen (LH2) combustion supplemented with hydrogen fuel cells starting in 2035.
While there are several pathways to create hydrogen using renewable energy, currently around three-quarters of dedicated hydrogen production is from natural gas and nearly one-quarter from coal, with oil and electricity comprising a minute fraction. In this work, we focus on the comparison of the well-to-wake (WTWa) potential environmental impacts of aircraft powered by combustion of LH2 produced by a variety of feedstocks with aircraft powered by the combustion of conventional jet fuel.
As many aspects of this product system are not yet mature, there is inherent uncertainty and variability to capture. Some uncertain variables pertain to future production and combustion efficiencies, or the probability of climate impacts from emissions at different altitudes. There is also variability in the type of feedstock, the aircraft model, passenger occupancy, and flight distance. Further, LCA practitioners can elect how to allocate credit, to consider near-term climate forcers, and to include infrastructure. Enhanced methods are needed to facilitate the incorporation of discrete variables into LCA.
The GREET 2020 model is modified to run a Monte Carlo simulation with nearly 500 continuous and discrete variables and a range of fuels and aircrafts. Initial comparisons are made between the WTWa performance. Sensitivity analyses were performed using regression analysis. The climate impact of contrail cirrus produced by combustion of various aviation fuels is a key driver of uncertainty, and the inclusion of infrastructure for renewable electrolysis matters in comparison with conventional fuels.
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Unraveling how the concept of circularity relates to sustainability: An indicator-based meta-analysis applied at the urban scale. Valeria Superti, Albert Merino-Saum, Ivo Baur, Claudia Binder
Cities account for 75% of resource consumption and 80% of CO2 emissions. With rising urbanization, achieving urban sustainability becomes crucial. The Circular Economy (CE) concept has been proposed to reduce resource consumption, although its link to sustainability remains unclear from theoretical and practical perspectives. This paper provides an in-depth comparative analysis of 57 indicator sets used in academia or practice to measure either CE in urban areas or urban sustainability. Indicators were extracted and categorized according to three conceptual frameworks, namely: the STEEP categories, the Sustainable Development Goals, and inductively-created thematic groups. The similarities among the 57 sets were analyzed to derive clusters. Results show that CE represents a subset of urban sustainability, while offering more indicators to assess specific thematic groups (e.g., waste). In the discussion, the value added by targeting a CE rather than sustainability is questioned, and insights are provided to support actors involved in an urban transition to develop well-informed city targets. The results offer theoretical, practical, and methodological contributions, and aid involved actors, especially those leading urban transition agendas, to unravel the conceptual link between CE and sustainability, specifically at the urban scale.
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Water Circular Economy at the Kwinana Industrial Area, Western Australia The Dimensions and Value of Industrial Symbiosis Biji Kurup, Chris Oughton, Martin Anda, Goen Ho
The major industrial companies located in the Kwinana Industrial Area (KIA) produce many industrial, agricultural, and mining chemicals and refined materials, for national and international markets. With over 150 documented product and by-product exchanges, Kwinana is one of the best examples of Industrial Symbiosis (IS) in the world. A new model of IS comprised of four dimensions is under development, whereby whilst each dimension is unique, collectively they interact to characterise an industrial estate, thus contributing to the evolutionary understanding of IS. Apart from the traditional product and by-product dimension of IS, three additional dimensions seem to be playing a crucial role in the KIA, these being the skilled workforce; support industry; and governance dimensions. We provide additional context for the water-related examples of the Circular Economy at Kwinana by exploring a new four-dimensional model for IS. We investigate the basis for this model through an analysis of two Water Circular Economy examples as they relate to Western Australia’s premier industrial area, the KIA. Case studies will consider a managed aquifer recharge (MAR) project that failed; and the process-water interconnectedness of enterprises operating successfully as a sub-ecology within the industrial cluster during the COVID-19 Pandemic crisis in 2020. In the case studies it is demonstrated that if one or more of the dimensions is deficient or is dysfunctional, the opportunity for a well-functioning Circular Economy is diminished. We conclude that achieving a circular economy in a complex industrial cluster, such as Kwinana, is made a great deal easier when the four synergy dimensions are strong, visible, supportive, and energetically embraced by all.
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