The demand for pollution-free and recyclable engineering materials has been increased as the cost of energy and environmental concerns have risen. Green material design can lead to better environmental quality and sustainability of civil infrastructure. Road construction is one of the largest consumers of natural resources. Beneficial utilization of recycled materials can result in an important opportunity to save the mining and use of virgin materials, to preserve energy, and to save landfill space. Two main research questions addressed in this study are: (1) How much pollution, energy, natural resources, time and money can be salvaged by applying recycling materials to Hot-Mix Asphalt (HMA)?, (2) What are the optimum mix designs for those recycled materials in HMA?, and (3) Can multiple recycled materials be used at the same time to compensate each other*s drawbacks? This study evaluates the structural performance and environmental-economical cost and benefit by substituting one or a combination of three recycled materials in HMA. The three recycled materials are Recycled Asphalt Shingle (RAS), Municipal Solid Waste Incineration (MSWI) Bottom Ash, and Recycled Concrete Aggregate (RCA). Performance evaluation of the HMA including those recycled materials has been performed by a series of laboratory experimental tests while the environmental impact was investigated by the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). In addition, Life Cycle Cost Analysis (LCCA) method has been employed to evaluate the benefit of the aforementioned recycled materials. In 2008, the Florida Legislature established a new statewide recycling goal of 75% to be achieved by the year 2020. The impact of this research aligns with this policy as it introduces a sustainable HMA that reduces the necessity of virgin aggregate and asphalt binder to 50% and 20%, respectively. In terms of environmental and economic impacts, in comparison with the regular HMA, it generates 25% less greenhouse gas emission, and for a period of 20 years, the cost of construction and maintenance would be 65% less.

Biogas production through anaerobic digestion is an important part towards the achievement of a bio-based and circular economy in Sweden. In fact, Swedish government proposed a strategy suggesting that biogas production should be increased from 2 TWh today to 7 TWh by 2030. Sweden has a large potential for biogas production from agricultural residues, not the least the Region Västra Götaland (RVG) where the stakeholders from the present study are located. The study explores the possibilities to use farm manure in co-digestion with deep bedding to produce biogas. The possibilities include two main alternatives for biogas production; mainly combined heat and power (CHP) to produce heat and electricity and biogas upgrading to produce bio-methane. The study took two existing organic farms in the municipality of Götene as a case study as well as an under-construction biogas plant by the company Gasum. The results of the present study also confirm that biogas could be a better option both economically and environmentally than fossil fuels. Additional results show that diesel consumption and energy prices are seen as hotspots that greatly influence both technical performance and economic profitability of biogas production. Another parameter is the geographical location of the studied system which could delimit or enhance the biogas production prospects depending on the proximity to gas grid or biogas unit. The aim of the study is to assess which of the studied alternatives is most profitable and has less environmental impacts; sending liquid manure to a biogas plant and receiving liquid fertilizer in exchange (centralized scenario) or invest in a biogas plant at the farm (on-farm scenario). A life cycle assessment (LCA) was conducted to compare environmental impacts of producing the equivalent of 1 MWh of biogas through on-farm plant and a biogas unit operated by the Finnish company Gasum. While a life cycle costing (LCC) was carried out considering a 10 year period with a 3% interest rate to analyze which of the two aforementioned options is more profitable for both farmers. Further this study aims to spur the interest of other scholars to further explore the potential of biogas/biomethane production within the agriculture sector and provide a better understanding of the different dynamics that impact the balance between energy provisions and the farm production process, and thus assist farmers to take part in the transition to a more renewable energy source.

Geotechnical engineering works are part of almost all construction and infrastructure projects. The geotechnical engineering work contributes to the impact on the environment and gives rise to costs throughout its life cycle. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Life Cycle Cost Analysis (LCCA) are established methods for evaluating a product's environmental impact and costs. However, the use of these methods is not extensive for geotechnical engineering works. A literature review showed that there is published research, but as the research topic is relatively new, there are many research gaps. A few topics in geotechnical engineering are better investigated than others and the entire life cycle is often not evaluated, usually only the production and construction stages. Although LCA and LCCA are established methods, the methodology for evaluating geotechnical engineering works needs further development to increase the evaluation work of sustainability aspects. In this licentiate thesis, a methodology is presented of how LCA and LCCA can be integrated into the geotechnical design process. The integration enables changes to the geotechnical design to further reduce the LCA and LCCA result, which is presented in the methodology. The methodology also presents a way to evaluate the possible geotechnical designs to select the most sustainable design based on the LCA and LCCA results. The thesis also presents the performance of LCA and LCCA for geotechnical engineering works and solutions to several difficulties that the geotechnical engineer may encounter during the evaluation of environmental impact and costs. / Geotekniska konstruktioner är en del av i stort sett alla konstruktions- och infrastrukturprojekt. Den geotekniska konstruktionen bidrar till påverkan på miljön samt ger upphov till kostnader under hela sin livscykel. Livscykelanalys (LCA) och livscykelkostnadsanalys (LCCA) är etablerade metoder för att utvärdera en produkts miljöpåverkan respektive kostnader. Användningen av dessa metoder är dock inte stor för geotekniska konstruktioner. En litteraturgenomgång visade att det finns publicerad forskning men då forskningsämnet är relativt nytt finns det många forskningsluckor. Ett fåtal ämnen inom geoteknik är bättre utredda än andra och hela livscykeln är oftast inte utvärderad utan vanligtvis endast produktions- och konstruktionssteget. Trots att LCA och LCCA är etablerade metoder behöver metodiken för utvärdering av geotekniska konstruktioner utvecklas för att öka utvärderingsarbetet av hållbarhetsaspekter. I denna licentiatuppsats presenteras en metodik för hur LCA och LCCA kan integreras i den geotekniska designprocessen. Integreringen möjliggör ändringar av den geotekniska designen för att ytterligare reducera LCA- och LCCA-resultatet vilket presenteras i metodiken. Metodiken redovisar även ett sätt för att utvärdera de möjliga geotekniska designerna för att utifrån LCA- och LCCA-resultaten välja den mest hållbara designen.  Uppsatsen redovisar även utförandet av LCA och LCCA för geotekniska konstruktioner och lösningar på ett flertal svårigheter som geoteknikern kan påträffa under utvärderingen av miljöpåverkan och kostnader. / <p>QC 230313</p>

No description available.

Rådande beslutsfattande för broar fokuserar mestadels på de tekniska, ekonomiska och säkerhetsrelaterade perspektiven. Dessa perspektiv är viktiga men samtidigt råder det på samhällsnivå en vilja och ett krav på byggsektorn att minska sin miljöpåverkan.Detta arbete identifierar metoder, arbetssätt och strategier som leder till en ökad livslängd av betongbroar. En ökad livslängd hos vårt befintliga bestånd av betongbroar undviker stora samhällsekonomiska kostnader och är önskvärt ur ett hållbarhetsperspektiv.En miljö- och kostnadsanalys har gjorts på riskkonstruktionen kantbalken. Kantbalkens valdes för analys då konstruktionsdelen visat sig vara särskilt problematisk. Analysen jämför fyra olika förvaltningsstrategier på kantbalken på en bro vars kantbalks byts efter 40 år. Strategierna som jämförs är: byte till en kantbalk med rostfri armering, byte till en kantbalk med rostfri tvärkraftsarmering, byten till en kantbalk i standardutförande och senare installation av olika katodiska skydd. Skiljande underhållsåtgärder för dessa strategier jämförs med hänsyn till ägarkostnader och användarkostnader. Miljöpåverkan för strategierna jämförs med miljöindikatorn Global Warming Potential i produktskedet.Resultatet visar att användandet av rostfri armering i kantbalken sparar mycket på användarkostnader sett till hela livslängden på bron men med en ökad miljöpåverkan i produktskedet. Dessutom kan galvaniskt katodiskt skydd med sprutad zink vara en lovande kostnadseffektiv lösning för att förlänga livslängden på kantbalkar. / Current decision-making for bridges focuses mainly on the technical, economical and safety related perspectives. These perspectives are of course important but at the same time there exists a will on societal level and a demand on the building sector to reduce their environmental impact.This report identifies methods, ways of working and strategies that lead to an increased life-span of concrete bridges. An increased life-span of our existing stock of concrete bridges avoids large socio-economic costs and is desirable from a sustainability perspective.A life-cycle analysis and life-cycle cost assessment has been done on a construction part at risk, the edge beam. The edge beam was chosen for analysis as it was shown to be a particularly problematic part of the construction. The analysis compares four different management strategies for the edge beam of a bridge where the edge beam is replaced after 40 years. The compared strategies are: replacing the edge beam for one with stainless steel reinforcement, replacing the edge beam for one with stainless steel shear reinforcement, replacing the edge beam to a standard one and later installing different cathodic protection solutions. The differing life-cycle measures for these strategies are compared with regards to owner-costs and user-costs. Environmental impact for the strategies is compared using the environmental impact indicator Global Warming Potential in the product stage.The results show that the use of stainless reinforcement in the edge beam saves a lot on user-costs over the whole life-span of the bridge but with an increased environmental impact in the product stage. Additionally, the use of galvanic cathodic protection in the form of sprayed zinc seems to be a promising cost-effective solution to increasing the life-span of edge beams.

Due to the growing complexity of systems and high demands on availability, fault tolerance, and scalability, more stateful applications are being moved to Kubernetes. There are two problems associated with this: (1) At the moment, there is a lack of industry standards when it comes to what is essential in a lifecycle management framework for stateful applications on top of Kubernetes. (2) Due to inadequate knowledge of the existing frameworks in the area and a lack of comparisons between them, there is no consensus on which framework to use. To solve these problems, this study reviews the field for existing frameworks and then evaluates the framework based on a set of metrics. The frameworks chosen for comparison during the study are (1) Operator Framework, (2) Shell Operator, (3) Kopf, and (4) KUDO. When comparing the frameworks, it becomes apparent that Operator Framework should be used in most cases. Kopf or Shell Operator can be used when creating simple scheduled activities or when the developing team is very knowledgeable in Python or Bash.

The circular economy is presented as a solution to reconcile environmental protection with economic endeavours. However, only 9% of the global manufacturing currently deploys circularity. Within the furniture industry, with its intensive use of resources, the adoption remains limited. However, the application of furniture remanufacturing practices in Europe is currently estimated to be a €300M turnover while presumably avoiding around 3.3 to 5.7 Mt CO2 eq. The literature on the transition to circular furniture has not yet identified the success factors and practical insights to facilitate the adoption of circularity. Therefore, this research sets out to evaluate the economic and environmental benefit that could be achieved by transitioning from a business-as-usual furniture product to a circular one. The analysis is conducted in cooperation with two European companies – a circular kitchen start-up and a traditional public seating retailer. A cradle-to-grave life cycle costing and life cycle assessment investigates the two case studies regarding their change trajectories for their costs and environmental impacts. With its novel design and changed material composition, the circular kitchen reduced the global warming potential of a standard kitchen by about 40%, which comes at a cost premium of 5%. Likewise, the circular transformation in the second case indicated similar environmental impact changes and economic benefit compared to the conventional product. The total life cycle costs decreased by 10%, while the results reveal a coincidental lowered global warming potential by one fourth. The integrated assessment also reveals the pre-production and production phase for both case studies as the most impactful even after the application of circular strategies. The outcomes coupled with the qualitative assessment further demonstrated decisive internal and external factors accompanying the successful transition of the furniture companies. Still, a vast amount of similar case studies is necessary to validate the change trajectories to facilitate the industry-wide adoption of circular strategies, as discussed in the present study. / Den cirkulära ekonomin presenteras som en lösning för att förena miljöskydd med ekonomiska mål. Dock använder endast 9% av den globala tillverkningen cirkuläritet i dagsläget. Inom möbelindustrin, med sin intensiva resursanvändning, är cirkuläritet fortfarande begränsat. Samtidigt uppskattas återtillverkning av möbler i Europa omsätta 300 miljoner euro och undvika omkring 3,3 till 5,7 miljoner ton koldioxidekvivalenter.  Litteraturen om övergången till cirkulära möbler har ännu inte identifierat några framgångsfaktorer eller praktiska insikter för att underlätta övergången till cirkuläritet. Denna studie ämnar därför att utvärdera de ekonomiska och miljömässiga fördelar som skulle kunna uppnås genom att övergå från en möbelprodukt som är business-as-usual till en cirkulär produkt. Analysen görs i samarbete med två europeiska företag – en cirkulär köks-startup och en traditionell återförsäljare av möbler för offentliga rum och ytor. Genom livscykelkostnads- och livscykelanalys undersöktes de två fallstudierna.  Med sin nya design och förändrade materialkomposition minskade det cirkulära köket den globala uppvärmningspotentialen i ett standardkök med cirka 40%, vilket skedde till en kostnadspremie på 5%. På samma sätt visade den cirkulära omvandlingen i det andra fallet liknande miljökonsekvensförändringar och ekonomiska fördelar jämfört med den konventionella produkten. De totala livscykelkostnaderna minskade med 10%, medan även potentiell klimatpåverkan minskade med en fjärdedel. Den integrerade bedömningen visar också att förproduktions- och produktionsfasen för båda fallstudierna är de faserna med mest signifikant påverkan, även efter tillämpningen av cirkulära strategier.  Resultatet demonstrerar tydliga interna och externa faktorer som medföljer en framgångsrik övergång för möbelbolag. En stor mängd liknande fallstudier är dock nödvändiga för att validera de kvantitativa fynden och facilitera bredare applicering av cirkulära strategier inom sektorn.

Adopting sustainability practices in both planned and current operations is increasingly important to many organizations. Due to increased awareness various companies are adopting life cycle thinking. For example, life cycle considerations from raw material extraction to final disposal of products or services are requested in environmental management system standard ISO 14001:2015. Octapharma is a biopharmaceutical company producing various medical products for the treatment of haematology, immunotherapy and critical care. The desire to incorporate environmental life cycle thinking into investment projects led to the research question of how this can be achieved at Octapharma in Stockholm. The objectives included a qualitative investigation of current environmental management strategies practiced in investment projects today. Secondly, a case study investment project was used to explore how one of the most commonly practiced life cycle management (LCM) tools, life cycle assessment (LCA), can be applied for the comparison of two alternative process technologies. The results showed that Octapharma today considers environmental aspects in some investment projects, such as construction, but it may be improved in other types of investment projects. Therefore, specific suggestions and modifications of the project model, in relation to life cycle management literature was developed for important checkpoints in the project management model. Lastly the case project comparative LCA showed that one of the technologies had a significant larger environmental footprint. / Inkludering av ett hållbarhetsperspektiv i företags nuvarande och framtida verksamhet har fått ökande betydelse. På grund av större medvetenhet inkluderar flera organisationer ett livscykeltänk, dvs. utvärdering av miljöpåverkan från råvaruextraktion till avfallshantering av både produkter och tjänster. Bland annat ISO 14001:2015, en miljöledningsstandard, har infört krav på livscykeltänk i certifierade verksamheter. Octapharma är ett läkemedelsföretag som tillverkar produkter inom hematologi, immunterapi och intensivvård. På grund av ett intresse för livscykeltänk i investeringsprojekt på Octapharmas Stockholmsfabrik skapades ett behov av att undersöka hur detta skulle kunna åstadkommas. Delmålen i detta projekt innefattar en kvalitativ undersökning om nuvarande inkludering av miljöaspekter i investeringsprojekt med viktiga projektintressenter i verksamheten. En kvantitativ jämförande livscykelanalys (LCA) av ett avslutat investeringsprojekt syftade till att genomföra en LCA av två olika processteknologier. Resultatet visar att Octapharma idag inkluderar miljöfrågor i vissa typer av projekt, framför allt byggprojekt, men implementeringen i andra projekt kan förbättras. Fortsättningsvis resulterade litteratursökningen och den kvalitativa undersökningen i ett antal förslag på förbättringar i projektmodellen på punkter där miljöfrågor är extra viktiga för slutresultatet. Den jämförande LCAn visade att den ena teknologin hade en betydligt större miljöpåverkan.

International LCA literature indicates that little data is available pertaining to potable water production and supply, in particular with respect to the environmental burdens generated within the system. This study aims to investigate and assess the environmental burdens associated with the potable water supply to an industrial area (Rosslyn, north of Pretoria, in the Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality). The procedure, as well as the assessment of the environmental impacts of a life cycle, is dependent on a comprehensive life cycle inventory (LCI) of the evaluated system. Water use is included in LCIs, which are incorporated into the LCIA procedure, as it reflects a direct extraction from available resources. The water supply system diagram has been developed and data was collected, treated and analysed in the inventory analysis phase. The study closely followed the four phases as stipulated in the International Organization for Standardization (ISO 14040 series of standards) for conducting LCAs, including: -- goal and scope definition; -- LCI analysis; -- LCIA; and -- interpretation, conclusions and recommendations. The methodology used in the impact assessment phase was the introduced LCIA framework for South Africa in order to determine the extent of different environmental impacts. The inventory analysis, conforming to the scope of the study, provided an overall inventory of energy and other resource requirements, emissions to water and air, dust fallouts and solid or liquid wastes for the system under study. By using this methodology and by tracing all unit processes involved in the potable water supply system, the main contribution to the environmental burdens imposed on the potable water supply system was found to be the extraction of the required water from nature to supply potable water to Rosslyn. The toxicity potential impacts on water resources, mainly due to the electricity required for the water supply system, are of minor importance. This conclusion is valid for the system investigated, and as a result, the recommendations for environmental improvements should focus on water losses that must be addressed foremost. What is required at this stage is strategic planning regarding the extraction, use and conservation of water resources. Furthermore, to optimise all processes of water extraction, and to make them more efficient, electricity and other energy inputs are also of importance, albeit to a lesser extent. / Dissertation (M (Applied Sciences : Environmental Technology))--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Chemical Engineering / unrestricted

Les services de distribution d’eau utilisent différentes ressources (eaux de surface et eaux souterraines), y compris une utilisation accrue de ressources alternatives (eau dessalée, eau réutilisée, transferts d'eau entre bassins) pour alimenter les différents utilisateurs (domestiques, agricoles, industriels, etc.). La combinaison de ces ressources en eau avec des technologies (incluant infrastructures, fonctionnement et énergie) donne lieu à une combinaison régionale d'approvisionnement en eau (WSmix) pour chaque utilisation spécifique. Actuellement, les bases de données existantes d'inventaire du cycle de vie (ICV) utilisées en Analyse du Cycle de Vie (ACV) ne proposent pas ce type de données relative aux WSmix régionalisées pour modéliser des processus. Ceci conduit à une représentation médiocre des systèmes d'approvisionnement en eau et des impacts environnementaux associés. Pour combler cette lacune, cette thèse développe (i) un cadre conceptuel cohérent de mix d'approvisionnement en eau (WSmix) pour la mise en oeuvre en ACV, (ii) une base de données opérationnelle incluant le mix de ressource en eau pour différents utilisateurs à l'échelle mondiale adossée à une matrice dite « technologique » associant chaque ressource à des technologies de production d'eau. Afin de tester en ACV l'opérationnalisation et l'applicabilité du mix WSmix à l'échelle mondiale et pour différents utilisateurs, le concept de WSmix est appliqué à deux exemples contrastés: un service (fourniture d’un m3 d’eau publique à la porte de l’utilisateur) et un produit global (production d’un kg maïs). Enfin, pour évaluer dans quelle mesure le WSmix sera affecté par les changements climatiques et socio-économiques, cette thèse propose le développement d'un WSmix Prospectif (P-WSmix) pour une mise en oeuvre pratique dans les études d'ACV et d'empreinte sur l'eau. / Water utilities draw different water sources (surface and groundwater), including increased use of alternative sources (e.g. desalinated water, reused water, inter-basin water transfers) to supply freshwater to different users (domestic, agriculture, etc.). The combination of water sources and technologies (including infrastructures and energy) results in a regional water supply mix (WSmix) for each specific use. Existing Life Cycle Inventory (LCI) databases used in Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), do not include these mixes when modelling processes, leading to a poor representation of water supply systems and related environmental impacts. To fill this gap, this thesis developes 1) consistent water supply mix (WSmix) model for implementation in LCA, 2) a first database of water source mixes for different users at a global scale and a technological matrix linking water sources to water production technologies in order to operationalize the practical implementation of the WSmix in LCA studies. In order to test the operationalization and applicability of the WSmix at worldwide scale and for different users, this theseis also describes the operationalization and application of the WSmix for two different water users worldwide with two different approaches: providing a generic service (public water supply) and producing a global product (maize production). Finally, to evaluate to what extent the WSmix will be affected by climate and socio-economic changes in the future, this thesis describes the development of a Prospective WSmix (P-WSmix) for practical implementation in LCA and water footprint studies.