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Evaluation of Environmental Impacts from a Molecular Evolution Laboratory’s Waste Management System—A Brazilian Case Study
Abstract
This study proposes an integrated waste management system to a university laboratory aiming: (i) waste prevention as the precursor activity; (ii) to distinguish not hazardous chemicals waste and enable recycling, and; (iii) to recycle solvents. The main objective is to decrease negative environmental impacts caused by studies conducted in this type of laboratory. A life cycle assessment was conducted to infer these impacts. Material consumption data were collected on site while recent studies were used for environmental impacts. Two scenarios were evaluated: (1) the current situation, where ethyl alcohol is recycled, chemical waste is incinerated and non-hazardous waste is landfilled; (2) a future scenario, where waste prevention is implemented; ethyl alcohol, gloves, plastic pipette tips and tubes are recycled; chemical waste is incinerated, and; paper waste is composted. The second scenario decreased considerably the environmental impacts and suggested that there is a potential for plastic waste recycling, yet it is necessary an economic evaluation to determine its feasibility. The pursue of waste prevention through new initiatives (e.g. electrical hand dryers) may also represent another gain on environmental and economic impacts. This methodology proved to be effective in achieving its purpose and it can be used to improve waste management in similar situations. Yet, the importance of this study relies on the inclusion of waste prevention as a first step to improve the current waste management system and also by including the assessment of its environmental impacts as a way to effectively decrease them. It important to highlight that is a type of waste common in most of the universities.
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Nowadays products, services, or technologies are proactively evaluated toward environmental performance byusing the life cycle assessment (LCA). The assessment cover the whole life cycle from cradle to grave hence theproduct performance can be analyzed or compared with others for product development or for making adecision. The University of Melbourne currently installed towel dispenser by means of hand drying method inthe entire campus. As some has suggested that electric dryer will provide more sustainable service than papertowel, a LCA study will be a good approach for comparing both methods. The study utilizes SimaPro softwareto generated database for impact assessment. The assessment method used in this study is Eco-Indicator 99.From the LCA study, electric hand dryer performed better in most of indicators. Electric hand dryer istherefore recommended to be used in the entire campus of the University of Melbourne
Palabras Claves: Gestión de resíduos, Recuperación de disolventes, Residuos peligrosos SUMMARY This work describes the actions taken since the beginning of our Chemical Waste Management Program: i) identification of the main types of residues; ii) quantification of the residues already existing; iii) inventory of the reagents and solvents stored and iv) outfit of a laboratory for chemical residues treatment (CTRQD). In CTRQD both heavy metal solutions and organic solvents were treated. Since 2003, we processed almost 5.000 Kg of about 10 types of solvents using batch distillation. Some of these solvents were recovered from mixtures: HPLC was recovered from acetonitrile/water mixtures, n-hexane and dichloromethane were recovered from dichloromethane/n-hexane mixtures and hexanes were recovered from hexanes/ethyl acetate mixtures after ester hydrolysis with KOH using phase transfer catalysis. Organic solvents were also recovered from liquid scintillation wastes. It was also established the feasibility of reusing solid KOH, dryers and phase transfer catalysts. Other solvents could be recovered by washing with aqueous HCl.
Purpose
The goal of this study is to evaluate and compare the environmental impact (with a focus on global warming potential) of five hand drying systems: hands-under (HU) dryers, high-speed hands-under (HSHU) dryers, high-speed hands-in (HSHI) dryers, cotton roll towels, and paper towels. Another objective is to incorporate uncertainty into this comparative life cycle assessment (LCA) as a means of understanding the statistical robustness of the difference between the environmental impacts of the hand drying systems.
Methods
We conducted a life cycle assessment in accordance with the ISO 14040/14044 standards using data primarily from publicly available reports. As part of the study, we performed a parameter uncertainty analysis for multiple scenarios to evaluate the impact of uncertainty in input data on the relative performance of products. In addition, we conducted a probabilistic scenario analysis of key drying system parameters in order to understand the implications of changing assumptions on the outcomes of the analyses.
Results and discussion
The scope of the analyses enabled us to draw robust conclusions about the relative environmental performance of the products. We can say with a high degree of confidence that the high-speed dryers have a lower impact than paper towels and cotton roll towels. Differentiating the performance of the hand dryers requires being more specific about framing assumptions. Under certain conditions, the HSHI dryer is expected to have a lower impact than the HU and HSHU dryers. However, under other conditions, one cannot say that the HSHI dryer is clearly better than the other dryers. We cannot differentiate the performance between the HU dryer, cotton roll towels, and paper towels.
Conclusions
This work demonstrates the importance of going beyond traditional uncertainty analyses for comparative LCAs that are used for assertions of relative product environmental impact. Indeed, we found instances where the conclusions changed as a result of using the probabilistic scenario analysis. We outline important elements that should be included in future guidance on uncertainty analyses in comparative LCAs, including conducting parameter and scenario uncertainty analyses together and then using the outcomes to guide selection of parameters and/or choices to analyze further.
Background, aim, and scopeThis paper presents the lifecycle assessment (LCA) of fuel ethanol, as 100% of the vehicle fuel, from sugarcane in Brazil.
The functional unit is 10,000km run in an urban area by a car with a 1,600-cm3 engine running on fuel hydrated ethanol, and the resulting reference flow is 1,000kg of ethanol. The product system includes
agricultural and industrial activities, distribution, cogeneration of electricity and steam, ethanol use during car driving,
and industrial by-products recycling to irrigate sugarcane fields. The use of sugarcane by the ethanol agribusiness is one
of the foremost financial resources for the economy of the Brazilian rural area, which occupies extensive areas and provides
far-reaching potentials for renewable fuel production. But, there are environmental impacts during the fuel ethanol lifecycle,
which this paper intents to analyze, including addressing the main activities responsible for such impacts and indicating
some suggestions to minimize the impacts.
Materials and methodsThis study is classified as an applied quantitative research, and the technical procedure to achieve the exploratory goal
is based on bibliographic revision, documental research, primary data collection, and study cases at sugarcane farms and fuel
ethanol industries in the northeast of São Paulo State, Brazil. The methodological structure for this LCA study is in agreement
with the International Standardization Organization, and the method used is the Environmental Design of Industrial Products.
The lifecycle impact assessment (LCIA) covers the following emission-related impact categories: global warming, ozone formation,
acidification, nutrient enrichment, ecotoxicity, and human toxicity.
Results and discussionThe results of the fuel ethanol LCI demonstrate that even though alcohol is considered a renewable fuel because it comes from
biomass (sugarcane), it uses a high quantity and diversity of nonrenewable resources over its lifecycle. The input of renewable
resources is also high mainly because of the water consumption in the industrial phases, due to the sugarcane washing process.
During the lifecycle of alcohol, there is a surplus of electric energy due to the cogeneration activity. Another focus point
is the quantity of emissions to the atmosphere and the diversity of the substances emitted. Harvesting is the unit process
that contributes most to global warming. For photochemical ozone formation, harvesting is also the activity with the strongest
contributions due to the burning in harvesting and the emissions from using diesel fuel. The acidification impact potential
is mostly due to the NOx emitted by the combustion of ethanol during use, on account of the sulfuric acid use in the industrial
process and because of the NOx emitted by the burning in harvesting. The main consequence of the intensive use of fertilizers
to the field is the high nutrient enrichment impact potential associated with this activity. The main contributions to the
ecotoxicity impact potential come from chemical applications during crop growth. The activity that presents the highest impact
potential for human toxicity (HT) via air and via soil is harvesting. Via water, HT potential is high in harvesting due to
lubricant use on the machines. The normalization results indicate that nutrient enrichment, acidification, and human toxicity
via air and via water are the most significant impact potentials for the lifecycle of fuel ethanol.
ConclusionsThe fuel ethanol lifecycle contributes negatively to all the impact potentials analyzed: global warming, ozone formation,
acidification, nutrient enrichment, ecotoxicity, and human toxicity. Concerning energy consumption, it consumes less energy
than its own production largely because of the electricity cogeneration system, but this process is highly dependent on water.
The main causes for the biggest impact potential indicated by the normalization is the nutrient application, the burning in
harvesting and the use of diesel fuel.
Recommendations and perspectivesThe recommendations for the ethanol lifecycle are: harvesting the sugarcane without burning; more environmentally benign agricultural
practices; renewable fuel rather than diesel; not washing sugarcane and implementing water recycling systems during the industrial
processing; and improving the system of gases emissions control during the use of ethanol in cars, mainly for NOx. Other studies
on the fuel ethanol from sugarcane may analyze in more details the social aspects, the biodiversity, and the land use impact.
Potential environmental impacts associated with aerobic in-vessel composting and bioreactor landfilling were assessed using life cycle inventory (LCI) tool. LCI models for solid waste management (SWM) were also developed and used to compare environmental burdens of alternative SWM scenarios. Results from the LCI models showed that the estimated energy recovery from bioreactor landfilling was about 9.6megajoules (MJ) per kilogram (kg) of waste. Air emissions from in-vessel composting contributed to a global warming potential (GWP) of 0.86kg of CO2-equivalent per kg of waste, compared to 1.54kg of CO2-equivalent from bioreactor landfill. Waterborne emissions contributing to aquatic toxicity is less coming from in-vessel composting than from bioreactor landfilling. However, emissions to air and water that contribute to human toxicity are greater for the composting option than for the landfill option. Full costs for in-vessel composting is about 6 times greater than for the landfilling alternative. Integration of individually collected commingled recyclables, yard wastes, and residual wastes with windrow composting and bioreactor landfilling produces airborne and waterborne emissions with the least environmental effects among the alternatives considered. It also yields greater energy savings due to the conversion of the landfill gas
(LFG) to electrical energy than the option that diverts yard waste, food waste and soiled paper for aerobic in-vessel composting. However, this scenario costs 68% more than that where the commingled collection of wastes is integrated with in-vessel composting and conventional landfilling, owing to increased collection costs.
The software tool ecosolvent is presented that allows for comparative environmental assessment of treatment technologies for specific, user-defined, waste-solvent mixtures. The tool is composed of models for waste-solvent distillation as well as for thermal treatment in hazardous waste-solvent incinerators and cement kilns. It was designed with a tiered structure in order to allow for a high flexibility regarding informational needs. The life-cycle assessment method was used to assess the environmental impact. The applicability of the tool is shown with two case studies from industry. In these case studies, various waste-solvent treatment technologies are compared for two specific waste-solvent mixtures. Potential use of the ecosolvent tool for its role in practical decision making in chemicals industries is illustrated by two case studies of waste-solvent systems. In the ethyl acetate case study, the tool indicates that solvent recovery by distillation is clearly better than incineration of the waste solvent. The results from the methanol case study are less clear-cut. In the subsequent article (part II), the ecosolvent tool will be used to derive general rules of thumb and specific recommendations for 45 important solvents used in chemical industries. Additionally, a framework will be presented that provides quick and easy decision support regarding environmentally optimized waste-solvent management. © 2007 by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Yale University.
Thailand is currently the world's largest natural rubber producer. To maintain a leadership position of natural rubber producer, it has been challenging for Thai rubber entrepreneurs to seek appropriate measures towards producing environmentally friendly rubber products. The objective of this study is to assess the potential environmental impact of concentrated latex production by partial Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), and to investigate the effects of the options to reduce the impact. The methodology is based on the ISO 14040 series, taking a “Gate-to-Gate” approach (Partial LCA). The activities taken into account include production of chemicals, production of diesel and electricity, diesel combustion, and wastewater treatment. The functional unit is 1 ton of concentrated latex, and the environmental impacts considered in this study include global warming, acidification, eutrophication, human toxicity, photochemical oxidation, and the total environmental impact. The results indicate that electricity use for centrifugation has the largest share, compared with other activities, in global warming (50%), acidification (58%), and photochemical oxidation (55%). Ammonia use for latex preservation accounts for 37% of human toxicity, whereas use of DAP (Diammonium phosphate) accounts for 46% of eutrophication. Based on these results, the following reduction options are therefore identified: 1) electricity efficiency improvement (by installation of inverters to centrifugal machines); 2) improvement of ammonia preparation and storage (by chilling systems); 3) minimizing the use of DAP (by extending coagulation time); and 4) substitution of diesel by LPG. These four options were technically and practically feasible for concentrated latex production, and result in reductions of the total environmental impact by 12%, 8%, 3%, and 5%, respectively.
A comparative life cycle assessment, under a cradle to gate scope, was carried out between two hand drying methods namely conventional hand dryer use and dispenser issued roll paper towel use. The inventory analysis for this study was aided by the deconstruction of a hand dryer and dispenser unit besides additional data provided by the Physical Resources department, from the product system manufacturers and information from literature. The LCA software SimaPro, supported by the ecoinvent and US-EI databases, was used towards establishing the environmental impacts associated with the lifecycle stages of both the compared product systems. The Impact 2002+ method was used for classification and characterization of these environmental impacts. An uncertainty analysis addressing key input data and assumptions made, a sensitivity analysis covering the use intensity of the product systems and a scenario analysis looking at a US based use phase for the hand dryer were also conducted. Per functional unit, which is to achieve a pair of dried hands, the dispenser product system has a greater life cycle impact than the dryer product system across three of four endpoint impact categories. The use group of lifecycle stages for the dispenser product system, which represents the cradle to gate lifecycle stages associated with the paper towels, constitutes the major portion of this impact. For the dryer product system, the use group of lifecycle stages, which essentially covers the electricity consumption during dryer operation, constitutes the major stake in the impact categories. It is evident from the results of this study that per dry, for a use phase supplied by Ontario's grid (2010 grid mix scenario) and a United States based manufacturing scenario, the use of a conventional hand dryer (rated at 1800W and under a 30s use intensity) has a lesser environmental impact than with using two paper towels (100% recycled content, unbleached and weighing 4g) issued from a roll dispenser.
Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Rubber production has been taking place in Thailand for many decades. Thailand is currently the world's largest natural rubber producer. We present emissions of greenhouse gases associated with the production of fresh latex, and three primary rubber products, including concentrated latex, block rubber (STR 20), and ribbed smoked sheet (RSS) in Thailand. Besides industrial activities in the rubber mills, the agricultural activities in rubber tree plantation are taken into account. The overall emissions from the production of concentrated latex, STR 20, and RSS amount to 0.54, 0.70, and 0.64 ton CO2-eq/ton product, respectively. This is for the case that rubber plantations have been located on cultivated lands for more than 60 years, which is current practice in most of Thailand. Emissions are largely associated with energy use and the use of synthetic fertilizers. We also quantify emissions for the case that tropical forests have been converted to rubber plantations relatively recently, which is a recent trend in Thailand. In this case the emissions are much higher because of carbon loss from land conversion: 13, 13, and 21 ton CO2-eq/ton product for concentrated latex, STR 20, and RSS, respectively. We discuss the implications of our results for strategies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from rubber production.
Polymers based on olefins have wide commercial applicability. However, they are made from non-renewable resources and are characterised by difficulty in disposal where recycle and re-use is not feasible. Poly-beta-hydroxybutyric acid (PHB) provides one example of a polymer made from renewable resources. Before motivating its widespread use, the advantages of a renewable polymer must be weighed against the environmental aspects of its production. Previous studies relating the environmental impacts of petroleum-based and bio-plastics have centred on the impact categories of global warming and fossil fuel depletion. Cradle-to-grave studies report equivalent or reduced global warming impacts, in comparison to equivalent polyolefin processes. This stems from a perceived CO(2) neutral status of the renewable resource. Indeed, no previous work has reported the results of a life cycle assessment (LCA) giving the environmental impacts in all major categories. This study investigates a cradle-to-gate LCA of PHB production taking into account net CO(2) generation and all major impact categories. It compares the findings with similar studies of polypropylene (PP) and polyethylene (PE). It is found that, in all of the life cycle categories, PHB is superior to PP. Energy requirements are slightly lower than previously observed and significantly lower than those for polyolefin production. PE impacts are lower than PHB values in acidification and eutrophication.
This study presents the effects of citizen participation on integrated solid waste management. Porto Alegre was chosen as the area of study since its system is a good example for developing countries, based on the partnership between local government and the former scavengers' association that implements selective collection in the city. A life-cycle approach was used to estimate environmental loadings and economic costs based on solid waste generation, and a survey assessment tool was used to analyse social aspects. The results showed a decrease in environmental and economic impacts in the current situation, allowing Porto Alegre to have one of the most affordable integrated solid waste management systems in Brazil. The survey assessment pointed out that public campaign changed the perceptions and practices of most of Porto Alegre's citizens regarding solid waste management. On the other hand, it also pointed out that citizens need more education to increase their participation. Therefore, more research is needed to increase cooperation among all stakeholders, improve citizen participation, and consequently, further decrease the environmental impacts and economic costs.
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