Search Results (4,117)

Phosphorus is a non-renewable resource critical for global food security, yet its natural reserves are rapidly depleting. Meanwhile, the poultry industry generates vast amounts of nutrient-rich waste that pose serious environmental risks if not managed properly. While valorizing these wastes offers a sustainable raw material alternative, investigating the environmental impacts of recovering them as a phosphorus source is crucial. This study evaluates phosphorus recovery from poultry litter via acid leaching following Hydrothermal Carbonization (HTC) and pyrolysis processes holistically. By conducting a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) using this specific substrate and method combination, this work aims to provide comprehensive environmental insights. The impact assessment reveals that the total Global Warming Potential (GWP) is 6.00 kg CO₂ eq for the pyrolysis scenario and 4.18 kg CO₂ eq for the HTC scenario. Methodologically, a ‘system expansion’ approach was applied to integrate the avoided burdens from poultry manure management into the system boundaries. Furthermore, the inventory analysis revealed that chemical consumption (specifically NaOH and H₂SO₄) in the production process is the dominant factor not only for Global Warming Potential (GWP) but also across other environmental impact categories evaluated. The findings clearly indicate that chemical intensity predominantly determines the environmental performance across carbon footprint, acidification and other environmental impact categories. Full article

To overcome the limitations imposed by the intermittent nature of sunlight in photocatalytic applications, this research constructs a round-the-clock purification system. We integrated an optimized S-scheme CoFe₂O₄/BiVO₄ (CFO/BV) heterojunction (synthesized via ultrasonic self-assembly at a 0.5:0.5 ratio) with a thermal energy storage (TES) unit consisting of SiO₂-encapsulated Na₂SO₄·10H₂O phase change materials (PCMs). Comprehensive characterization techniques, including XRD, HRTEM, UV-Vis DRS, EPR, and DSC, confirmed the successful formation of the interface, a broadened visible-light response (λ > 650 nm), efficient radical production, and a high latent heat storage capacity (>200 J/g). Under simulated solar irradiation, the composite exhibited superior performance, degrading 98% of the Rhodamine B within 6 h (k = 0.00994 min⁻¹), significantly surpassing single-component counterparts. More importantly, during the subsequent 12 h dark period, the heat released from the PCM maintained the reaction temperature above 35 °C, driving a 64% degradation efficiency via a thermocatalytic pathway. The system demonstrated robust stability (>90% efficiency after five cycles), excellent magnetic recoverability (98%), and high tolerance to saline textile wastewater (<10% activity loss). Furthermore, Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) indicated a 40% reduction in energy consumption compared to conventional UV/TiO₂ processes, highlighting a sustainable strategy for continuous wastewater remediation through synergistic photocatalysis and thermocatalysis. Full article

This study performs a sensitivity analysis of CO₂ emissions from clinker and cement production using life cycle assessment (LCA). Both local and global sensitivity analyses (LSA and GSA) are conducted. LSA uses outputs from the GCCA EPD tool—developed by the Global Cement and Concrete Association to facilitate Environmental Product Declarations—and examines correlations between perturbed input variables and the resulting output changes. For GSA, we present an analytical derivation of Sobol’ indices. We derive quantitative relationships between alternative materials and fuels and key technical indices, while preserving clinker and cement quality throughout the sensitivity analysis. Increasing the share of the alternative fuels (AFs) categories and of recycled concrete produces a negative percentage change in CO₂ emitted from the clinker (CO₂/CL). The largest CO₂/CL reductions arise from high-biomass fuels, followed by alternative solid fuels and refuse-derived fuels, shredded tires, and, lastly, recycled concrete. The clinker-to-cement ratio (CL/CEM) dominates the CO₂ emitted in cement production (1% change → 0.926–0.956% change), while clinker-level CO₂ reductions transmit to cement with only minor variation, confirmed by Sobol’ indices. Aside from reducing CO₂/CL by increasing alternative materials and fuels, the two principal approaches to lowering CO₂/CEM are: (i) minimizing clinker content in cement where permitted by applicable standards while maintaining the same performance, and (ii) designing new cement types that deliver equivalent performance with lower clinker content. Full article

The valorisation of significant quantities of wood biomass ash (WBA) in the production of building and construction materials is a sustainable approach to waste management. Due to their low chemical reactivity, the challenge for WBA-based alkali-activated materials (AAM) is improving their mechanical properties. To address this issue, WBA, containing wood biomass bottom ash and wood biomass fly ash, was used as the primary precursor. One aluminosilicate-rich material (coal fly ash (CFA), metakaolin (MK), or natural zeolite (NZ)) was added as a binary precursor at 10, 20, 30, and 40% of the total precursor mass (the mass of WBA plus the binary precursor) to compare its effectiveness. In the overall composition, the proportion of these aluminosilicate precursors was only 3.3–13.3%. Alkali activators consisted of 10% calcium hydroxide, 7 mol/L sodium hydroxide, and sodium silicate with the same solute mass as sodium hydroxide. Compressive strength and microstructural examinations (SEM-EDS, TG-DTA, XRD, XRF, and FTIR) were conducted on the produced AAM to analyse the mechanical performance and reaction mechanisms. A cradle-to-gate lifecycle assessment (LCA) was performed to evaluate the environmental impacts, including greenhouse gas emissions and energy consumption. The results show that NZ increased compressive strength by up to 57.62% when used at 6.6% in the composition. At the same time, MK and CFA increased strength by 33.05% and 47.15%, respectively. Binary precursors increased the greenhouse gas emissions and energy demands of AAM products, especially the MK, due to its energy-intensive calcination process. From a comprehensive view, NZ is the most efficient choice based on both mechanical and environmental insights. Full article

Increasing attention to environmental performance in construction materials has intensified the need for robust Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) studies on bituminous waterproofing systems. This study addresses the lack of comparative LCAs based on primary data for hot-applied Elastomeric Modified Bitumen (EMB) and cold-applied Bitumen Emulsion (EMBE), two widely used materials with contrasting application methods and environmental profiles. While EMB has been moderately covered in the literature, this study contributes uniquely by providing one of the first LCAs based on primary data for EMBE, a formulation that is increasingly adopted in the construction sector but still underexplored in environmental assessments. The primary industrial data were combined with international LCI datasets (Ecoinvent) to model environmental impacts using SimaPro 9.4.0.3. Results show that EMBE demonstrates better climate performance (611 kg CO₂ eq/t) but is more sensitive to specific additives, especially resins and plasticizers, which significantly increase Ozone Depletion Potential and photochemical ozone formation. The Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) survey analysis further highlights the influence of recycled content, cold mix technologies, and production energy sources on environmental performance. The findings indicate that the selection of waterproofing materials should consider not only technical performance but also the distribution of environmental impacts across the life cycle. Full article

Shipping is urgently exploring alternative vessel energy sources across a wide range of options—from other fossil fuels to renewables—with a view to more sustainable ship propulsion. Based on processing of publicly available data, the authors discuss the prospects of the supply chains for 16 vessel power sources alternative to oil, comparing descriptive statistics across respective fuel supply chain key performance indicators (KPIs) to evaluate potentiality along with hidden vulnerabilities. While finding marked differences across calculated mean, standard deviation and coefficient of variation values, the authors do not preclude the development of parallel ship fuel supply chains, unlike the case of previous fuel transitions in shipping. To support this scenario, already formed in practice, they emphasize the enabling attributes of today’s world fleet in terms of total capacity and of size of each of the main shipping sectors which could eventually sustain nowadays multiple fuel supply chains. Concluding on limitations and challenges that such an energy-source multitude can create, the authors underline the need to consider in the Life-Cycle Assessment (LCA) of shipping fuels their total impact, including necessary ship hardware changes for a more thorough assessment of fuels’ impact across the entire shipping services’ supply chain. Full article

The growing use of integrated circuits has made it essential to assess and minimize the environmental impacts of these systems. As most integrated circuits are manufactured on electronic-grade silicon (EG Si) wafers, the first step is to obtain reliable, consistent and complete life cycle inventory (LCI) data on their production. This work proposes an update to the LCI of EG Si wafers with recent data available for solar-grade silicon (SoG Si) wafers. In addition, as thickness, shape and purity differ greatly between SoG and EG Si wafers, an adaptation to the manufacturing process’s LCI has been made. Full article

Technology upgrades are a central lever for sustainability, yet many optimization models primarily account for use-phase emissions and treat embodied impacts and technological change exogenously. We propose a multi-period mixed-integer optimization framework that couples upgrade timing, technology choice, and operations with a life-cycle assessment (LCA) structure. The model (i) separates use-phase and embodied impacts at the transition level, (ii) supports time-weighted valuation of impacts through a flexible weighting sequence (time value of carbon), and (iii) incorporates endogenous learning-by-doing that can reduce both investment costs and embodied impacts of future upgrades. We derive an exact Benders (L-shaped) decomposition that separates discrete upgrade dynamics from a linear operating subproblem. Computational experiments illustrate model behavior and report runtimes under an outer-loop implementation with open-source solvers, highlighting that decomposition becomes most beneficial when extensions substantially enlarge the dispatch layer (e.g., scenario expansion). Experiments also show that ignoring embodied impacts can mis-rank upgrade schedules and even violate life-cycle caps, that stronger time-weighting pushes upgrades earlier, and that learning can make staged upgrades economically preferable. Full article

This review examines the implementation dimensions of integrated lemon biorefinery systems, including cascade valorisation design, circular-economy integration, life-cycle assessment, techno-economic feasibility, and regulatory frameworks. Bibliometric analysis of Web of Science data (2015–2025) reveals exponential growth in citrus-biorefinery research, with lemon representing a burgeoning subset. Techno-economic assessments indicate that cascade biorefineries recovering essential oils, pectin, polyphenols, nanocellulose, and bioenergy can achieve cumulative revenues of USD 400–650 per tonne of dry peel. Whilst small-scale units (<500 tonnes per year) struggle to achieve viability, industrial simulations demonstrate Internal Rates of Return exceeding 18% at processing scales above 100,000 tonnes annually (2025 basis). Life-cycle assessments confirm environmental benefits, with greenhouse gas reductions of 60–85% relative to conventional disposal. Critical success factors include adopting green extraction technologies to preserve bioactive integrity and mitigating D-limonene inhibition in downstream anaerobic digestion. These findings establish essential oil extraction and pectin recovery as commercially mature technologies, whilst integrated multi-product lemon biorefineries remain economically promising based on techno-economic modelling and pilot-scale demonstrations, provided regulatory hurdles are effectively navigated. Full article

Emerging non-volatile memories based on ferroelectric materials are currently under development to be integrated in the back-end-of-line of advanced complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) nodes. A life cycle assessment (LCA) over 16 impact categories has been carried out to compare planar (2D) and vertical (3D) integration strategies for the manufacturing of Hf_0.5Zr_0.5O₂-based ferroelectric capacitors on a 22 nm CMOS technology node. The LCA demonstrates that the 3D approach allows us to reduce the environmental impacts by up to 20% over several impact categories. The device isolation by a single chemical–mechanical polishing (CMP) step instead of the standard photolithography and plasma etching processes proved to be the main source of reduction on the overall environmental footprint. Full article

The UK faces an urgent challenge to simultaneously accelerate housing delivery and reduce whole-life carbon emissions, yet robust empirical evidence on the carbon performance of modular steel housing remains limited. This study aims to quantify the carbon impacts of a modular light-gauge steel frame social housing dwelling in the UK and to benchmark its performance against contemporary low-carbon construction typologies. A cradle-to-grave life cycle assessment was conducted using primary project data from a real modular housing development, with embodied carbon modelled in One Click LCA and operational energy assessed through SAP 10.2-verified datasets. The results indicate a total whole-life carbon footprint of 91.3 tCO₂e over a 50-year period, with embodied emissions (A1–A3) accounting for 38.2% and operational energy and water use contributing 48.1%. The normalised embodied carbon intensity of 366 kgCO₂e/m² (A1–A5) is comparable to recent high-performing cross-laminated timber buildings, demonstrating that optimised modular steel systems can allow for low-carbon outcomes typically associated with bio-based construction. Sensitivity analysis shows that low-carbon foundation concrete, bio-based insulation, and steel optimisation can reduce upfront emissions by approximately 8–10%. Dynamic energy simulations were also used to assess how different design choices influence operational carbon emissions. This study provides transparent, real-project evidence of the whole-life carbon performance of UK modular light-gauge steel frame housing and identifies practical design strategies for further decarbonisation. The findings support informed decision-making for policymakers, designers, and housing providers seeking scalable, low-carbon residential solutions. Full article

The water–energy–carbon (WEC) nexus provides a systems framework for minimizing trade-offs among water security, energy reliability, and carbon mitigation. Within this framework, waste-derived biochar catalysts offer a circular pathway that simultaneously valorizes residues, reduces process energy demand, and supports carbon management through stable carbon storage and catalytic co-benefits. This review consolidates recent advances in biochar-based catalysts engineered from agricultural, industrial, municipal, and sludge-derived wastes, highlighting how feedstock selection and thermochemical processing, namely pyrolysis, hydrothermal carbonization (HTC), and torrefaction, as well as activation and post-modification (heteroatom doping and metal/metal-oxide incorporation) govern structure–property–performance relationships. The synthesized catalysts have been widely applied in water and wastewater treatment, including adsorption–advanced oxidation process (AOP) hybrids, Fenton-like systems, peroxydisulfate/persulfate (PS) and peroxymonosulfate (PMS) activation, photocatalysis, and the removal of emerging contaminants. They have also demonstrated strong potential in energy conversion processes such as the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), oxygen reduction and evolution reactions (ORR/OER), biomass reforming, and carbon dioxide (CO₂) conversion. In addition, these materials contribute to carbon management through sequestration pathways, avoided emissions, and life cycle assessment (LCA)-based sustainability evaluations. Finally, we propose a WEC-aligned design roadmap integrating techno-economic analysis (TEA), LCA, and scale-up considerations to guide next-generation biochar catalysts toward robust performance in real matrices and deployment-ready systems. Full article

Intending to improve building performance and environmental sustainability, vertical greenery systems (VGSs) are employed as effective nature-based solutions (NbSs), yet they often struggle to meet modern building energy demands alone. This study investigates the integration of VGSs with advanced façade technologies (AFTs) to develop multifunctional hybrid façades. A systematic review was conducted following PRISMA 2020 guidelines, combining bibliometric and thematic analyses of 415 publications (2015 to early 2026) from Scopus and Web of Science. The study categorizes AFT into adaptive, energy-generating, and high-performance façades. The results indicate that VGS–photovoltaic (PV) systems and double-skin (DS) systems are the most studied integration scenarios, providing significant thermal regulation and energy efficiency. However, significant gaps remain for kinetic, modular, bioactive, and glazing systems, particularly regarding standardized workflows and long-term lifecycle assessments (LCAs). The study reveals a transition of VGSs from passive aesthetic elements to active building components. To address these identified gaps, a four-phase design strategy—conceptualization, hybridization, optimization, and development—is proposed to guide architects and engineers in decision-making regarding generating optimized hybrid façades. Integrating VGSs with AFTs is essential for urban resilience and an alignment with Sustainable Development Goals. Future research should prioritize standardized integration protocols and the application of smart technologies like artificial intelligence (AI). Full article

Clinker production is the main contributor to the environmental footprint of cement manufacturing and represents a key target for improving the sustainability of the cement industry. This study presents a harmonized cradle-to-gate life cycle assessment (LCA) of clinker production based on real industrial plant-level data and establishes environmental benchmarks for inter-plant comparison. The framework enables consistent evaluation of environmental performance while minimizing methodological inconsistencies that often limit the comparability of LCA studies. Using a plant-level industrial inventory dataset, key energy and emission indicators were assessed and compared with a literature-based benchmark under harmonized methodological conditions. The case-study plant exhibited a thermal energy intensity of 3162 MJ/t clinker and electricity consumption of 52.23 kWh/t clinker, representing improvements of approximately 6% and 29%, respectively, relative to the benchmark system. However, total direct CO₂ emissions remained comparable at 1010 kg CO₂/t clinker, indicating that improvements in operational energy efficiency do not necessarily result in proportional reductions in overall greenhouse gas emissions. Process-related emissions from limestone calcination accounted for approximately 73% of total emissions, limiting the mitigation potential achievable through energy efficiency alone. These findings highlight the importance of integrated benchmarking approaches that simultaneously consider energy intensity, emission structure, and climate impact when evaluating clinker production systems and developing decarbonization strategies for the cement industry. Full article

Water electrolysis is a key technology for sustainable hydrogen production and a cornerstone of future low-carbon energy systems. However, large-scale deployment is constrained not only by efficiency and cost, but increasingly by the sustainability and availability of materials used in electrocatalysts and membranes. This review provides a materials-centric assessment of state-of-the-art and emerging electrocatalysts for alkaline (AEL), proton exchange membrane (PEM), and solid oxide electrolysis (SOEC) technologies, emphasizing the interdependence of performance, durability, cost, and sustainability. Electrocatalyst activity and stability are linked to cell- and stack-level efficiency, energy demand, and the levelized cost of hydrogen. Life cycle assessment (LCA) and resource criticality analyses are integrated to quantify environmental impacts, supply risks, and recycling potential of key materials, including platinum group metals, nickel, rare earth elements, and ceramic oxides. Particular attention is given to recycling and circularity strategies, which are essential for mitigating material scarcity and reducing upstream emissions, especially in PEM electrolyzers. Emerging catalyst concepts such as single-atom catalysts, high-entropy alloys, and noble-metal-free systems are discussed as promising pathways to reduce critical material dependence. The review concludes by highlighting the need for integrated material–technology–system approaches to enable efficient, scalable, and truly sustainable hydrogen production. Full article