<p>The rise of the twenty-first century has seen the further increase in the industrialization of Earth’s resources, as society aims to meet the needs of a growing population while still protecting our environmental and natural resources. The advent of the industrial bioeconomy – which encompasses the production of renewable biological resources and their conversion into food, feed, and bio-based products – is seen as an important step in transition towards sustainable development and away from fossil fuels. One sector of the industrial bioeconomy which is rapidly being expanded is the use of biobased feedstocks in electricity production as an alternative to coal, especially in the European Union.</p><p>As bioeconomy policies and objectives increasingly appear on political agendas, there is a growing need to quantify the impacts of transitioning from fossil fuel-based feedstocks to renewable biological feedstocks. Specifically, there is a growing need to conduct a systems analysis and potential risks of increasing the industrial bioeconomy, given that the flows within it are inextricably linked. Furthermore, greater analysis is needed into the consequences of shifting from fossil fuels to renewable feedstocks, in part through the use of life cycle assessment modeling to analyze impacts along the entire value chain.</p><p>To assess the emerging nature of the industrial bioeconomy, three objectives are addressed: (1) quantify the global industrial bioeconomy, linking the use of primary resources with the ultimate end product; (2) quantify the impacts of the expaning wood pellet energy export market of the Southeastern United States; (3) conduct a comparative life cycle assessment, incorporating the use of dynamic life cycle assessment, of replacing coal-fired electricity generation in the United Kingdom with wood pellets that are produced in the Southeastern United States.</p><p>To quantify the emergent industrial bioeconomy, an empirical analysis was undertaken. Existing databases from multiple domestic and international agencies was aggregated and analyzed in Microsoft Excel to produce a harmonized dataset of the bioeconomy. First-person interviews, existing academic literature, and industry reports were then utilized to delineate the various intermediate and end use flows within the bioeconomy. The results indicate that within a decade, the industrial use of agriculture has risen ten percent, given increases in the production of bioenergy and bioproducts. The underlying resources supporting the emergent bioeconomy (i.e., land, water, and fertilizer use) were also quantified and included in the database.</p><p>Following the quantification of the existing bioeconomy, an in-depth analysis of the bioenergy sector was conducted. Specifically, the focus was on quantifying the impacts of the emergent wood pellet export sector that has rapidly developed in recent years in the Southeastern United States. A cradle-to-gate life cycle assessment was conducted in order to quantify supply chain impacts from two wood pellet production scenarios: roundwood and sawmill residues. For reach of the nine impact categories assessed, wood pellet production from sawmill residues resulted in higher values, ranging from 10-31% higher.</p><p>The analysis of the wood pellet sector was then expanded to include the full life cycle (i.e., cradle-to-grave). In doing to, the combustion of biogenic carbon and the subsequent timing of emissions were assessed by incorporating dynamic life cycle assessment modeling. Assuming immediate carbon neutrality of the biomass, the results indicated an 86% reduction in global warming potential when utilizing wood pellets as compared to coal for electricity production in the United Kingdom. When incorporating the timing of emissions, wood pellets equated to a 75% or 96% reduction in carbon dioxide emissions, depending upon whether the forestry feedstock was considered to be harvested or planted in year one, respectively.</p><p>Finally, a policy analysis of renewable energy in the United States was conducted. Existing coal-fired power plants in the Southeastern United States were assessed in terms of incorporating the co-firing of wood pellets. Co-firing wood pellets with coal in existing Southeastern United States power stations would result in a nine percent reduction in global warming potential.</p> / Dissertation

ABSTRACT At a time where the planet is facing one of its major global crises, re-thinking of systems in every sector is needed. In the field of energy at its global meaning, various ways of action are considered. In this context, housing sector represents a key point of new conception of our society. Nowadays buildings are no longer considered only as designed housing "objects". Comfort, consumption, environmental impacts are part of the words which appear utterly linked to every single building. Thermal behaviour tends to be as much important as architectural and structural concerns. Indeed, energy savings have become one of the most talked about parameters of a building. Through this paper, key parameters of a building will be compared in order to obtain the most effective houses depending on their location. Nevertheless, comfort will be studied too because of its increasing importance in modern society. The results will be obtained according various aspects: technical ones, environmental ones and financial ones. For all those houses meeting the French standards, similar comparison will be made. Thus the approach will not be organised one house after another but through the impact of one parameter after another to draw the final comparison between the three houses according to the same parameters. Keywords: energy consumption, CO2 emissions, sustainable systems, bioclimatic buildings

The following paper will explore the future of sustainable building practices as it relates to building design rating systems and whether building design rating systems are effective in conserving energy and resources in the construction of new buildings. This paper will begin by highlighting some of the general principles behind sustainable design practices, and the challenges of determining if building design rating systems are utilized effectively towards the goal of sustainability. In addition, the paper will highlight issues specific to ongoing litigation in Gifford v. U.S. Green Building Council and allegations made within the lawsuit that question the methodology and efficacy of building design rating systems. How political and ideological influences have propelled sustainability practices into the mainstream, and to what extent government is and should be involved in regulating building design rating systems will also be explored. Lastly, how will new energy performance and sustainable design methodologies, which are now being required in the law, affect the professional liability of building design professionals in the future?

Sustainability is one of the challenges in today’s world. With limited resources at hand and hazardous impact of manufacturing processes on the environment, there is an increasing need for sustainable manufacturing. Sustainability actually has a broad meaning and is an all-inclusive concept. In this thesis what we are more interested in and focus on, are energy consumption and environmental impacts. Using system dynamics modeling and simulation, we can more easily understand the behavior of processes. Our selected processes are turning, milling and drilling operations in crankshaft machining and using system dynamics concept we model these processes with regards to energy consumption and environmental concerns. The output of this thesis work can be eventually used as a decision support tool to decide how to make processes more sustainable.

Made available in DSpace on 2017-07-25T19:30:48Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Jessica Alves dos Santos.pdf: 679249 bytes, checksum: 3ae55a8cf411c25ba8cb319cec75453b (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-02-20 / Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico / The liming is essential for building soil fertility, enabling exploitation more sustainable of production systems. However, the efficiency and the residual effect of lime used are dependent on the degree of soil disturbance, which has been distinguished in conservation production systems. The objectives of this work are (i) quantify the yields of dry matter (DM) and content crude protein (CP) in maize silage during the years 2008-2014; and (ii) evaluate the changes in soil fertility attributes: active acidity (pH), potential acidity (H+Al), exchangeable acidity (Al3+) and base saturation (V) 24 and 60 months after of liming, in different methods tillage and uses of annual ryegrass during the autumn-winter. The experiment was conducted in Castro (PR) in an Oxisol dystrophic clayey. The design experimental was a randomized complete block design with split plots and four replications. In the plots were studied four methods of soil tillage: conventional tillage (CT), minimum tillage (MT), no-tillage (NT) and chiseled no-tillage (CNT). In the subplots were studied three purposes of use of annual ryegrass: cover crop (CC), silage (S) and grazing of the dairy heifers in integrated crop-livestock (ICL). In medium-term, the tillage methods (CT, MT, NT, and CNT) do not influence the yield of DM and CP content of maize silage. The uses annual ryegrass for S and ICL not influence yield of DM and provide high CP in corn silage. Using the preceding crop just as CC provides least amount of benefits systems to annual ryegrass production and maize silage. Lower acidity and higher V were observed in layer the 0-5 cm in NT. Compared to the NT, the CNT not improve the acidity and V. The annual ryegrass for the S and ICL provided, over time, decrease in the acidity of the soil in layers below 10 cm depth. The NT combined with ICL provides improvement in soil acidity conditions after 60 months after liming. / A correção da acidez é fundamental para a construção da fertilidade do solo, possibilitando a exploração mais sustentável dos sistemas de produção. Todavia, a eficiência e o efeito residual do corretivo utilizado são dependentes do grau de perturbação do solo, que tem sido distinto nos sistemas de produção. Os objetivos deste trabalho são (i) quantificar os rendimentos de matéria seca (MS) e teor de proteína bruta (PB) no milho silagem durante os anos 2008-2014; e (ii) avaliar as alterações nos atributos de fertilidade do solo: acidez ativa (pH), potencial (H+Al) e trocável (Al3+) e saturação por bases (V) aos 24 e 60 meses após a calagem, em diferentes métodos de preparo do solo e usos do azevém anual durante o outonoinverno. O experimento foi instalado no município de Castro (PR), em um Latossolo Bruno distrófico de textura argilosa. O delineamento experimental utilizado foi o de blocos completos casualizados, com parcelas subdivididas e quatro repetições. Nas parcelas (10 x 30 m) foram empregados quatro métodos de preparo do solo: cultivo convencional (CC), cultivo mínimo (CM), plantio direto (PD) e PD com subsolagem bianual (PDS). Nas subparcelas (10 x 10 m) foram estudadas três propósitos de uso do azevém anual: cobertura do solo (CS), silagem pré-secada (SPS) e pastejo animal em sistema integrado de produção agropecuária (SIPA). Em médio prazo, os métodos de preparo do solo (CC, CM, PD e PDS) não influenciam o rendimento de MS e teor de PB de milho silagem. Os usos de azevém anual para SPS e em SIPA não influenciam o rendimento de MS e proporcionam incremento nos teores de PB no milho silagem. O uso da cultura antecessora apenas como CS proporciona menor quantidade de benefícios aos sistemas de produção de azevém anual e milho silagem. No decorrer do período, menor acidez e maior V foram observadas na camada de 0-5 cm no PD. Quando comparado ao PD, o PDS não proporcionou melhoria nas condições de acidez e V. O azevém anual destinado à SPS e SIPA proporcionou, ao longo do tempo, diminuição da acidez do solo nas camadas abaixo de 10 cm de profundidade. O PD aliado ao SIPA proporciona melhoria nas condições de acidez do solo após 60 meses da aplicação do calcário.