碱浸－电解法生产锌粉过程的生命周期评价研究

随着高品位优质闪锌矿资源的减少,研究开发利用贫杂锌矿、含锌废渣等二次资源的锌冶炼清洁工艺,成为锌冶炼工业重要而迫切的任务.碱浸－电解法作为一种生产高纯度锌粉的新工艺,具有流程简单、原料适应性强、成本低等优点.为了对碱浸－电解法生产高纯度锌粉新工艺的环境影响进行分析,运用生命周期评价(LCA)方法,对该新工艺的环境负荷进行研究,并与传统的酸法和火法工艺进行了对比.结果表明:与传统酸法和火法工艺相比,碱法生产锌粉工艺的环境协调性更优越,其能源总需求、温室效应指数及酸化指数分别是酸法工艺的87.76%,47.80%和0.08%;是火法工艺的93.94%,9.25%和0.14%.      

几种典型高分子材料的生命周期评价

利用生命周期评价方法(Life Cycle Assessment,LCA)讨论了PE、PP、GPPS及PVC 4种高分子材料的环境影响问题．结果表明,材料生产的环境影响不仅与资源消耗有关,而且与其各自的工艺环节有着密切的关系．此外,采用不同的LCA方法得到的4种高分子材料的环境负荷的相对值虽然相差很大,但其不同环境负荷之间的排序基本一致．     

Alternative scenarios to meet the demands of sustainable waste management

This paper analyses different alternatives for solid waste management that can be implemented to enable the targets required by the European Landfill and Packaging and Packaging Waste Directives to be achieved in the Valencian Community, on the east coast of Spain. The methodology applied to evaluate the environmental performance of each alternative is Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). The analysis has been performed at two levels; first, the emissions accounted for in the inventory stage have been arranged into impact categories to obtain an indicator for each category; and secondly, the weighting of environmental data to a single unit has been applied. Despite quantitative differences between the results obtained with four alternative impact assessment methods, the same preference ranking has been established: scenarios with energy recovery (1v and 2v) achieve major improvements compared to baseline, with scenario 1v being better than 2v for all impact assessment methods except for the EPS'00 method, which obtains better results for scenario 2v. Sensitivity analysis has been used to test some of the assumptions used in the initial life cycle inventory model but none have a significant effect on the overall results. As a result, the best alternative to the existing waste management system can be identified.     

POEMS: A Case Study of an Italian Wine-Producing Firm

Over the last decade, researchers paid much attention to concepts such as Design for Environment, Extended Producer Responsibility, Responsible Chain Management, and Eco-design. Many management tools and standards (such as EMAS, ISO 14001, LCA, EPD, Ecolabel) have been developed to support companies in the evaluation and management of their environmental performance and to pursue continual environmental improvement. The more recent development of the aforesaid fields looks at interorganizational environmental management. Such an approach can complement the more traditional intraorganizational corporate environmental management approaches and tools. A typical example of this new trend is the Product Oriented Environmental Management System (POEMS), which represents the natural evolution of the above-mentioned tools, combining the features of EMS, EPD and Ecolabel. Although the structure of the POEMS is still not standardized, many experimental applications have yet been carried out in Europe. In developing a POEMS, a company needs to determine all of the environmental impacts caused at all life-cycle stages of the product and, ideally, to reduce all of them through a continual commitment. The aim of the present study was to perform a survey of the developed POEMS models and to analyze their peculiarities and drawbacks in the application to Small and Medium Enterprises. A case study regarding an Italian winery company is presented. The study analyzes the structure and the activities of the examined firm, in order to estimate direct and indirect environmental impacts following a life-cycle approach. The chosen functional unit is a 0.75-L bottle of red wine. The article also suggests some solutions to improve the environmental performances of the firm’s products.     

Mathematical modelling as a tool for environmental evaluation of industrial sectors in Colombia

A general mathematical model has been developed as a tool for environmental evaluation of industrial chemical processes. This model is based on the life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology and includes a modular and cumulative conceptual approximation. Accordingly, the model considers the potential effects on the environment caused by mass, energy and exergy flows. For environmental loads related with mass flows, two main categories are defined: pollution and perturbation environmental effects. Whereas for the environmental effect associated with energy flows, a factor defined as “energy dissipation” is employed, and similarly for exergy flows, a “exergy destruction” parameter is used. The measurement unit employed throughout the model is expressed in terms of “potential environmental impact units/hour”. As an example study case, the integrated production chain (IPC) for nitric acid production in the Colombian context is evaluated. This particular IPC includes the ammonia production plant, energy plants and main process plant. The results demonstrate that for environmental perturbation effects based on mass flows, the main contribution in the IPC corresponds to the energy plants. In the case of pollution environmental loads, the principal contribution relates to ammonia production. Regarding environmental effects associated with energy flows, the highest “energy dissipation” factor corresponds to the main process, followed in order by the ammonia process. Finally, for the effect denominated as “exergy destruction”, it could be established that Colombian energy plants show the highest contribution in the IPC.     

用生命周期的方法评价铜炉渣作为铜选矿原料的环境影响

运用生命周期评价的方法,分别对铜炉渣和铜矿石回收铜的选矿过程的环境协调性进行了对比研究,得到了选矿生产过程中各工序的环境负荷数据。评价结果表明,铜炉渣的人类健康损害、生态系统损害和资源损害分别为0.20783、0.00764和0.01919,而铜矿石的分别是0.08165、0.0075和0.08857,铜炉渣生产铜的资源损害比铜矿石低,而人类健康损害和生态系统损害比铜矿石高,铜炉渣选矿生产过程每生产1 kg渣精矿的环境负荷约为铜矿石的1.32倍。随着国内铜精矿供应缺口的增大,从铜炉渣中回收铜资源将显著地提高资源利用率,有利于循环经济的发展。     

Eco-certification of Farmed Seafood: Will it Make a Difference?

Eco-certification is widely considered a tool for reducing environmental impacts of aquaculture, but what are the likely environmental outcomes for the world’s fastest growing animal-food production sector? This article analyzes a number of eco-certification schemes based on species choice, anticipated share of the global seafood market, size of eligible producers, and targeted environmental impacts. The potential of eco-certification to reduce the negative environmental impacts of aquaculture at scale presently appears uncertain as: (a) certification schemes currently focus on species predominantly consumed in the EU and US, with limited coverage of Asian markets; (b) the share of certified products in the market as currently projected is too low; (c) there is an inequitable and non-uniform applicability of certification across the sector; (d) mechanisms or incentives for improvement among the worst performers are lacking; and (e) there is incomplete coverage of environmental impacts, with biophysical sustainability and ecosystem perspectives generally lacking.     

Life Cycle Assessment of Polysaccharide Materials: A Review

Apart from conventional uses of polysaccharide materials, such as food, clothing, paper packaging and construction, new polysaccharide products and materials have been developed. This paper reviews life cycle assessment (LCA) studies in order to gain insight of the environmental profiles of polysaccharide products (e.g. viscose or natural fibre polymer composites) in comparison with their conventional counterparts (e.g. cotton or petrochemical polymers). The application areas covered are textiles, engineering materials and packing. It is found that for each stage of the life cycle (production, use phase and waste management) polysaccharide-based end products show better environmental profiles than their conventional counterparts in terms of non-renewable energy use (NREU) and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Cotton is an exception, with high environmental impacts that are related to the use of fertilisers, herbicides, pesticides and high water consumption. The available literature for man-made cellulose fibres shows that they allow to reduce NREU and GHG emissions in the fibre production phase. No study has been found for the fabric production and the use phase of man-made cellulose textiles.

Evaluating waste disposal systems

Waste disposal systems conventionally exhibit many problems, such as difficulties in finding final disposal sites for incinerator residues and the issue of how to recycle waste materials. Some new technologies have been developed to solve such problems, including ash melting and gasification melting. Furthermore, to improve the power generation efficiency of waste treatment facilities so that their energy is used more efficiently, combined stoker/gas turbine power generation (super waste power generation) technology has been developed. Through examination of two cases in this study, environmental impacts and costs were determined using lifecycle assessment (LCA) and lifecycle cost (LCC) methods in a model city. In case 1, a stoker furnace was compared to a combined stoker/gas turbine system. In case 2, a stoker furnace plus ash melting system was compared to a gasification melting system. The results demonstrate that the stoker furnace has a lower environmental impact than the combined stoker/gas turbine system in case 1, and that the stoker plus ash melting system costs less than the gasification melting system in case 2, but both systems had strong impacts on the environment.     

中国城乡居民消费隐含的碳排放对比分析

可持续消费研究是产业生态学的重要内容.居民消费包括城镇居民消费和农村居民消费.本研究首先采用综合生命周期分析方法(Hybrid LCA)核算 1997、2002和2007三年的居民消费隐含的二氧化碳排放总量,发现2007年的碳排放量已经达到18.01亿吨.城镇居民消费已经成为居民消费的主要组成部分,到2007年城镇居民消费的碳排放量达到总量的76.44%.采用结构分解分析(SDA)方法对影响居民消费碳排放量变化的五项驱动因素进行分析,发现排放强度因子是"减缓"居民消费碳排放量增加的主要力量,而人均消费水平因子是推动碳排放量迅速增加的主要因素.同时,发现居民消费结构的变迁对碳排量的增加有一定促进作用.在未来应该通过持续降低能耗强度和加快研发低碳能源技术,来持续降低碳排放强度.另外,要充分挖掘居民生活方式和消费行为的减排潜力,引导消费结构,提倡适度消费,促进居民消费模式向低碳方向转变.