O desafio de se atingir o desenvolvimento sustentável tem levado os sistemas produtivos buscar um equilíbrio entre os aspectos ambientais, econômicos e sociais. Com relação ao uso dos recursos hídricos, a aqüicultura se mostra, no Brasil, como uma atividade economicamente emergente, mas que precisa considerar os aspectos de sustentabilidade em sua produção. O presente trabalho apresenta como objetivo avaliar os potenciais impactos causados pelas atividades de piscicultura e pesque-pague no corpo hídrico, localizado na região de montante da bacia hidrográfica do rio Mogi-Guaçu. Dentre as metodologias de avaliação de impactos ambientais, pode-se destacar a Avaliação do ciclo de vida (ACV) por seu caráter sistêmico, e por isso é utilizada neste trabalho. Para o desenvolvimento do estudo da ACV, foi utilizado o método Environmental Design of Industrial Products - EDIP, alguns métodos de caracterização hídrica na fase de inventário da ACV e uma avaliação qualitativa da introdução de espécies não nativas em uma região. Os resultados deste trabalho estão estruturados de acordo com a metodologia da ACV, aplicada ao pescado advindo de pesque-pague em estudo de caso localizado na região de montante da bacia hidrográfica do rio Mogi-Guaçu. A unidade funcional adotada é a quantidade de kcal contida em um kg de filé de peixe. A utilização da metodologia da ACV na produção animal permite uma avaliação quantitativa dos principais impactos ambientais gerados ao longo do seu ciclo de vida, permitindo acompanhar o comportamento ambiental de cada unidade de processo. A piscicultura se mostra como a maior consumidora dos recursos naturais não renováveis e, seu efluente apresenta um maior potencial de acidificação, em relação ao pesque-pague. O pesque-pague, por sua vez, se mostra como o maior consumidor dos recursos naturais renováveis e seu efluente apresenta um maior potencial de eutrofização, ecotoxicidade e de toxicidade humana. O consumo de energia elétrica é, praticamente, equivalente por parte das atividades de piscicultura e pesque-pague. Qualitativamente, avaliaram-se os potencias impactos decorrentes da introdução de espécies exóticas e alóctones, diagnosticando as principais espécies comercializadas nos pesque-pague, presentes na bacia hidrográfica do rio Mogi-Guaçu. Portanto, as atividades de piscicultura e pesque-pague apresentam potenciais de impactos ambientais negativos ao corpo hídrico da região e precisam adotar medidas para reduzi-los, tais como, redução do uso de substâncias químicas e melhoria da qualidade dos alimentos dos peixes. / The challenge to reach the sustainable development has taken the production systems to search a balance among the environmental, economical and social aspects. For the hydraulic resources consumption, the water based activities in Brazil show as economically emergent, but need to include the sustainable aspects in the production. The goal of this dissertation is to evaluate the potential impacts in the water caused for the activities of fish production and fishery, located in the region of the water basin of the Mogi-Guaçu river. Among the methodologies of environmental impact assessment, the life cycle assessment (LCA) can be focused, because of its systemic aspect and that\'s why it is applied in this work. For the development of the study of this LCA, the methods used are the Environmental Design of Industrial Products - EDIP, some water characterization methods for the inventory analysis of the LCA and a qualitative analysis of the impacts of the inclusion of fishes which are not from the region studied. The results of this work are structured according the LCA methodology, applied to the fish from fish production and fishery in a study case located at the water basin of the Mogi-Guaçu river. The functional unit is the amount of kcal contained in one kg of filet of fish. The use of the methodology of the LCA in the animal production allows a quantitative evaluation of the main environmental impacts caused by its cycle of life, allowing the monitoring of the environmental behavior of each unit of process. The fish production is the highest consumer of the non renewable resources and its water emissions present the highest potential for acidification. The fishery is the highest consumer of renewable resources and its water emissions present the highest potential for nutrient enrichment, ecotoxicity and of human toxicity. The consumption of electric energy is, basically, equal on the activities of fish production and fishery. Qualitatively, it was evaluated the ecological impacts due to the inclusion of fishes which are not from the region studied. Concluding, the activities of fish production and fishery present negative impact potentials for the water quality and some actions should be done to reduce these impacts, as, chemical consumption reductions and a better quality food for the fishes.

A normalização é uma importante etapa da Avaliação do Ciclo de Vida, uma vez que fornece uma unidade comum, permitindo a comparação das diferentes categorias de impacto. A referência de normalização mais utilizada considera o impacto das atividades totais da sociedade num certo período de tempo. Estes dados são inexistentes no Brasil para impactos regionais e locais, de forma que este trabalho objetivou iniciar o preenchimento dessa lacuna, com os fatores de normalização para as categorias \"acidificação\" e \"eutrofização\", no estado de São Paulo. Tais fatores foram calculados com base em um inventário das estimativas anuais de aporte ao meio ambiente de substâncias contribuintes para estas categorias, cuja realização possibilitou a análise do estado da arte desses impactos em São Paulo e dos setores responsáveis pela geração das substâncias contribuintes. Conforme esperado, os fatores (ou referências) de normalização encontrados foram diferentes daqueles por hora utilizados no Brasil, baseados em dados europeus. Entre as razões que explicam esta diferença estão a baixa emissão de \'SO IND.X\' devido a matriz energética brasileira, o uso de etanol com combustível e o despejo de esgoto sem tratamento (ou tratamento inadequado). / Normalization is an important step in Life Cycle Assessment as it provides a common unit, allowing the comparison of the different impact categories. The normalization reference most widely used considers the \"background\" impact from the total activities of society in a chosen reference period. These data are inexistent in Brazil for regional and local impacts so that this work aimed to begin filling this lack, first developing normalization factors for the categories \"acidification\" and \"eutrophication\" in the state of Sao Paulo. These factors were calculated from an inventory of the annual load to the environment of substances contributing to these categories; the production of this inventory allowed the analysis of a) the state of the art of these impacts in Sao Paulo and b) the sectors responsible for the generation of contributors. As expected, normalization factors (or references) were different from those currently used in Brazil, based on European data. Among the reasons for this difference are lower \'SO IND.X\' emissions due to the Brazilian energy matrix, the use of ethanol as fuel and disposal of sewage without treatment (or mistreatment).

The starting point for this thesis project is the increasing intense demands of using Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) to improve the environmental performance of projects, i.e. theFive-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope project(FAST project) inChina. As a prevailing systematic and strategic assessment tool, LCA is used to evaluate and assess all environmental impacts of products, services and industrial processes from cradle to grave. It is also well recognized and practiced to achieve the goal of sustainability.   Following the increasing trend of sustainable development, the idea of conducting LCA technique is gaining more support from the governments, local authorities and institutes inChina. Still, recent researches have only focused on the technical issues of this tool as such, rather than the context it is involved in. To give a broader perspective instead, this thesis focuses on how to make the rankings and quantitative eco-files generated from LCAs be understood more effectively and easily by the decision makers. An effective and comprehensive map of life cycle assessment building on the results of life cycle assessment is presented.This map in this thesis is named as CLCA. Through ranking and mapping the complicated and recondite environmental performance information from the LCAs, a holistic and systematic view can be provided to the decision makers. Thus, to some extent, this CLCA approach can lend support to strategic decisions making and sustainable development.   For this purpose, literature on LCA and literature from relevant disciplines are reviewed. The empirical analysis of FAST project sheds light on that it is necessary to develop a new method that can contribute to convertingcomplicated and reconditedata into a comprehensive and visualized one. Therefore, a survey paper based on the literature review and empirical analysis is designed, distributed and collected. Some influential and necessary essentials of the LCA reports for the decision makers are picked out and summarized in accordance with the results of survey papers. This thesis concludes by presenting a new map of LCA reports and suggestions for further research.

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There is growing interest in the assessment of products from a life cycle perspective. Product life cycles are often dominated by extensive chemical supply chains that lead up to the materials contained in the products and the overwhelming contribution that the production of these chemicals make to the overall life cycle due to their energy intensity. Hence, chemical engineers are uniquely positioned to carry out significant components of this assessment because of their skills in chemical process design and analysis. Furthermore, the complexity and extent of life cycle concerns creates opportunities for new process systems tools to be developed to support product design and analysis. The specific thesis objectives are threefold. The first is to develop a systematic methodology to optimize material selections for a product based on life cycle inventory (LCI) characteristics. The second is to use this methodology combined with sustainability assessment standards to assess whether these standards are congruent with life cycle assessment. The third is to develop an approach to design product sustainability assessment standards that are clear and consistent with life cycle principles. The overall contributions will be in the applied domain of life cycle assessment and its integration into standards setting, and in contributions to optimization tools and methods. The three objectives will be illustrated in the domain of carpet systems. Previous research has generated a substantial database of gate-to-gate (GTG) life cycle inventories for various chemicals that make up carpet, extending from the inputs to the final carpet mill back to the natural resources such as oil, natural gas and mined calcium carbonate. Carpet recycling is a promising alternative approach for reducing life cycle impacts and is being practiced at a growing scale in the U.S. This thesis uses the specific individual LCI gate-to-gate blocks for virgin materials and for important carpet recycling and general polymer recycling processes. A database for the GTG LCI will be used to construct a virtual chemical tree that automatically that represents the potential cradle-to-gate (CTG) use of resources. The alternatives for each possible route for the product will be generated, and optimization approaches will be applied to optimize the performance of the carpet system according to life cycle objectives. Sustainability assessment standards are currently being developed for a range of building products, such as carpet, resilient flooring, commercial textile coverings and office furniture. This activity has been stimulated through the considerable success of the U.S. Green Building Council's (USGBC) LEED standard. The LEED Standard is points-based: the building design and construction earns points for having certain attributes or promoting certain activities. The points are totaled and then the building earns a rating based on the total being above a certain threshold. The second thesis objective is met through extending the LCI optimization methodology to represent point-based standards. A product can then be optimized to maximize the number of points it earns or to minimize its life cycle attributes. This approach can be used to evaluate the effectiveness of an emerging carpet sustainability standard, NSF-140, in integrating LCI into the standard. The last objective, standard design, is approached through designing the tables that award points in the standard to be consistent with life cycle information. Certain minimum principles of consistency are articulated and then the designs shown to be consistent with these principles in the case that the life cycle impact assessment method maps the life cycle inventory to impact through a linear weighting.

In recent decades, the environmental issues from the construction sector have attracted increasing attention from both the public and authorities. Notably, the bridge construction is responsible for considerable amount of energy and raw material consumptions. However, the current bridges are still mainly designed from the economic, technical, and safety perspective, while considerations of their environmental performance are rarely integrated into the decision making process. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a comprehensive, standardized and internationally recognized approach for quantifying all emissions, resource consumption and related environmental and health impacts linked to a service, asset or product. LCA has the potential to provide reliable environmental profiles of the bridges, and thus help the decision-makers to select the most environmentally optimal designs. However, due to the complexity of the environmental problems and the diversity of bridge structures, robust environmental evaluation of bridges is far from straightforward. The LCA has rarely been studied on bridges till now. The overall aim of this research is to implement LCA on bridge, thus eventually integrate it into the decision-making process to mitigate the environmental burden at an early stage. Specific objectives are to: i) provide up-to-date knowledge to practitioners; ii) identify associated obstacles and clarify key operational issues; iii) establish a holistic framework and develop computational tool for bridge LCA; and iv) explore the feasibility of combining LCA with life cycle cost (LCC). The developed tool (called GreenBridge) enables the simultaneous comparison and analysis of 10 feasible bridges at any detail level, and the framework has been utilized on real cases in Sweden. The studied bridge types include: railway bridge with ballast or fix-slab track, road bridges of steel box-girder composite bridge, steel I-girder composite bridge, post tensioned concrete box-girder bridge, balanced cantilever concrete box-girder bridge, steel-soil composite bridge and concrete slab-frame bridge. The assessments are detailed from cradle to grave phases, covering thousands of types of substances in the output, diverse mid-point environmental indicators, the Cumulative Energy Demand (CED) and monetary value weighting. Some analyses also investigated the impact from on-site construction scenarios, which have been overlooked in the current state-of-the-art. The study identifies the major structural and life-cycle scenario contributors to the selected impact categories, and reveals the effects of varying the monetary weighting system, the steel recycling rate and the material types. The result shows that the environmental performance can be highly influenced by the choice of bridge design. The optimal solution is found to be governed by several variables. The analyses also imply that the selected indicators, structural components and life-cycle scenarios must be clearly specified to be applicable in a transparent procurement. This work may provide important references for evaluating similar bridge cases, and identification of the main sources of environmental burden. The outcome of this research may serve as recommendation for decision-makers to select the most LCA-feasible proposal and minimize environmental burdens. / <p>QC 20150311</p>

Life cycle assessment of soil remediation options:Study of options at Norrbyskär - which alternative has the least climate impact?  The purpose of this report was to make a life cycle assessment (LCA) to compare four suggested options for soil remediation at Norrbyskär, Umeå. The question formulation was to find out which option that had the least climate impact depending on the aim of the remediation. Main focus of the study was emissions of CO2 from transportation and machine work for each remediation option. The LCA was a screening and presented a good overview for the results. What sets the four remediation options apart is the amount of soil that is processed for each option. The LCA was performed according to the standards ISO 14040:2006 and ISO 14044:2006. Calculations in the report was performed with the LCA-software SimaPro and general data from EcoInvent. The results showed that the total emissions from each soil remediation option varied between 310 and 590 tonnes carbon dioxide equivalents (CO2e). The option that only included covering of the contaminated area with new soil had the least emissions and the option that included excavation and filling with new soil had the highest emissions. Both options do not fulfill the same goals in the end, though. One conclusion is that the more extensive remediation is the greater is the climate impact.

This thesis presents a new metric-based Life-cycle Assessment (LCA) method for assessing the sustainability performance of metallic automotive components. The unique feature of this research work include the development and use of a metrics-based product sustainability index (ProdSI) methodology by considering the total life-cycle approach and the triple bottom line (TBL) with the 6R methodology. It has been shown that the manufactured product’s sustainability performance can be comprehensively assessed using this new methodology. The major focus of this research is the integration of the 6R activities (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Recover, Redesign and Remanufacture). Four life-cycle stages of the product, with various end-of-life (EOL) product scenarios, are modeled and analyzed. These scenarios include: reuse, remanufacturing, and recycling the products at EOL. Furthermore, a new mathematical model is developed and presented to determine the optimum percentage mix for various product EOL strategic options. By using the 6R methodology, the overall product sustainability was significantly improved. This improvement was quantitatively assessed by computing the ProdSI score. Ultimately, this research shows that a closed-loop material flow can be achieved.

O aço é um insumo de usos diversos que variam desde a construção civil, até a confecção de bens de consumo. Sob a perspectiva ambiental, as transformações que ocorrem nessa cadeia produtiva se destacam pelos elevados consumos de insumos e de energia - nas formas elétrica e térmica -, e por emissões para o Meio Ambiente. Assim, o grande desafio das siderúrgicas é encontrar alternativas que reduzam os impactos ambientais associados aos seus processos. Esta busca requer porém, uma análise sistêmica e integrada que considere o produto final em todo seu ciclo de vida. Este estudo tem por finalidade a avaliação do desempenho ambiental da produção de aço líquido para um arranjo tecnológico médio no país. Para tanto, utilizou-se a ferramenta de Análise de Ciclo de Vida (ACV). Embora o diagnóstico tenha sido efetuado sobre todas as etapas de processamento, optou-se por evidenciar etapas que fossem inerentes do processamento do aço líquido. O diagnóstico inicial, então, revelou que as principais etapas responsáveis pelos impactos ambientais inerentes ao processo são: a) produção de energia elétrica do Grid brasileiro, b) a manufatura do aço e c) captação e transporte de água. A partir desta vistoria de etapas inerentes pôde-se propor cenários de melhoria de desempenho ambiental para o processo de produção do aço líquido, a saber: I) Aproveitamento de Gás de Aciaria para produção de Energia Elétrica e II) Instalação de Tecnologia de apagamento a seco do coque. Embora o Cenário III não esteja contemplado nas cargas inerentes de processo, o mesmo foi efetuado a partir de solicitação da empresa: III) Substituição do fornecimento de Minério de Manganês. A técnica de ACV foi novamente aplicada com o intuito de verificar a validade das ações propostas. O estudo concluiu que houve melhorias relevantes no desempenho ambiental principalmente nos modelos CED e USEtox, em todas a categorias de impacto apresentadas (Fósseis Não Renováveis, Nuclear Não Renovável, Biomassa Não Renovável, Biomassa Renovável, Energia decorrente de efeitos naturais, Água Renovável, Toxidade Humana a Câncer, Toxidade Humana Não Câncer e Ecotoxidade Aquática) para os Cenário I e II. Pouco impacto foi observado no modelo ReCiPe Midpoint (H) para o Cenário I e II a não ser pela piora na categoria de impacto de Formação de Oxidantes Fotoquímicos para o Cenário II. Isso aconteceu por um aumento na emissão de monóxido de carbono descrito pela proposição. O Cenário III apresentou melhoria significativa apenas de uma categoria de impacto: Depleção de Metais, devido redução da depleção manganês, explicada pela melhoria de qualidade na troca de fornecedores. / Steel is an input for various uses ranging from construction, to the production of consumer goods. From an environmental perspective the changes that occur in the production chain are highlighted by high consumption of raw materials and energy - in electric and thermal forms - and emissions to the environment. So the great challenge of the steel is to find alternatives that reduce environmental impacts associated with their processes. This search, however, requires a systemic and integrated analysis that considers the final product throughout its life cycle. This study aims to evaluate the environmental performance of the liquid steel production to an average technological arrangement in the country. For this, we used the Life Cycle Analysis Tool (ACV). Although the diagnosis has been made on all processing stages, we chose to highlight steps that were inherent in the liquid steel processing. The initial diagnosis then revealed that the main stages responsible for the environmental impacts inherent in the process are: a) electricity production of the Brazilian Grid, b) the manufacture of steel and c) uptake and transport of water. From this survey inherent steps could be proposed improvement scenarios of environmental performance for the liquid steel production process, as follows: I) Steelmaking Gas Utilization for Production of Electricity and II) Coke Dry Quenching Tecnology. Although Scenario III is not contemplated in the process of inherent charges, the same was made on request from the company: III) Replacing the supply of manganese ore. The LCA technique was applied again in order to verify the validity of the proposed actions. The study concluded there were significant improvements in the environmental performance mainly in CED and USEtox models in all the presented impact categories (Fossils Renewable Not Nuclear Renewable No Biomass Renewable Non Renewable Biomass Energy from natural effects, Renewable Water, Toxicity Human to Cancer, Human Toxicity Ecotoxicity not Cancer and Frashwater Ecotoxity) for Scenario I and II. Little impact was observed in the model ReCiPe Midpoint (H) for Scenario I and II unless the worsening Photochemical Oxidant Formation impact category for Scenario II. This happened by an increase in carbon monoxide emission described by the proposition. Scenario III showed significant improvement only in a depletion impact category metals due reducing manganese depletion, explained by the improvement of quality of switching suppliers.

O desafio de se atingir o desenvolvimento sustentável tem levado os sistemas produtivos buscar um equilíbrio entre os aspectos ambientais, econômicos e sociais. Com relação ao uso dos recursos hídricos, a aqüicultura se mostra, no Brasil, como uma atividade economicamente emergente, mas que precisa considerar os aspectos de sustentabilidade em sua produção. O presente trabalho apresenta como objetivo avaliar os potenciais impactos causados pelas atividades de piscicultura e pesque-pague no corpo hídrico, localizado na região de montante da bacia hidrográfica do rio Mogi-Guaçu. Dentre as metodologias de avaliação de impactos ambientais, pode-se destacar a Avaliação do ciclo de vida (ACV) por seu caráter sistêmico, e por isso é utilizada neste trabalho. Para o desenvolvimento do estudo da ACV, foi utilizado o método Environmental Design of Industrial Products - EDIP, alguns métodos de caracterização hídrica na fase de inventário da ACV e uma avaliação qualitativa da introdução de espécies não nativas em uma região. Os resultados deste trabalho estão estruturados de acordo com a metodologia da ACV, aplicada ao pescado advindo de pesque-pague em estudo de caso localizado na região de montante da bacia hidrográfica do rio Mogi-Guaçu. A unidade funcional adotada é a quantidade de kcal contida em um kg de filé de peixe. A utilização da metodologia da ACV na produção animal permite uma avaliação quantitativa dos principais impactos ambientais gerados ao longo do seu ciclo de vida, permitindo acompanhar o comportamento ambiental de cada unidade de processo. A piscicultura se mostra como a maior consumidora dos recursos naturais não renováveis e, seu efluente apresenta um maior potencial de acidificação, em relação ao pesque-pague. O pesque-pague, por sua vez, se mostra como o maior consumidor dos recursos naturais renováveis e seu efluente apresenta um maior potencial de eutrofização, ecotoxicidade e de toxicidade humana. O consumo de energia elétrica é, praticamente, equivalente por parte das atividades de piscicultura e pesque-pague. Qualitativamente, avaliaram-se os potencias impactos decorrentes da introdução de espécies exóticas e alóctones, diagnosticando as principais espécies comercializadas nos pesque-pague, presentes na bacia hidrográfica do rio Mogi-Guaçu. Portanto, as atividades de piscicultura e pesque-pague apresentam potenciais de impactos ambientais negativos ao corpo hídrico da região e precisam adotar medidas para reduzi-los, tais como, redução do uso de substâncias químicas e melhoria da qualidade dos alimentos dos peixes. / The challenge to reach the sustainable development has taken the production systems to search a balance among the environmental, economical and social aspects. For the hydraulic resources consumption, the water based activities in Brazil show as economically emergent, but need to include the sustainable aspects in the production. The goal of this dissertation is to evaluate the potential impacts in the water caused for the activities of fish production and fishery, located in the region of the water basin of the Mogi-Guaçu river. Among the methodologies of environmental impact assessment, the life cycle assessment (LCA) can be focused, because of its systemic aspect and that\'s why it is applied in this work. For the development of the study of this LCA, the methods used are the Environmental Design of Industrial Products - EDIP, some water characterization methods for the inventory analysis of the LCA and a qualitative analysis of the impacts of the inclusion of fishes which are not from the region studied. The results of this work are structured according the LCA methodology, applied to the fish from fish production and fishery in a study case located at the water basin of the Mogi-Guaçu river. The functional unit is the amount of kcal contained in one kg of filet of fish. The use of the methodology of the LCA in the animal production allows a quantitative evaluation of the main environmental impacts caused by its cycle of life, allowing the monitoring of the environmental behavior of each unit of process. The fish production is the highest consumer of the non renewable resources and its water emissions present the highest potential for acidification. The fishery is the highest consumer of renewable resources and its water emissions present the highest potential for nutrient enrichment, ecotoxicity and of human toxicity. The consumption of electric energy is, basically, equal on the activities of fish production and fishery. Qualitatively, it was evaluated the ecological impacts due to the inclusion of fishes which are not from the region studied. Concluding, the activities of fish production and fishery present negative impact potentials for the water quality and some actions should be done to reduce these impacts, as, chemical consumption reductions and a better quality food for the fishes.