Environmental and economic feasibility study of a total wastewater treatment network system

The synthesis of distributed wastewater treatment plants (WTPs) has been studied to reduce capital and operating costs associated with wastewater treatment. In this study, the environmental and economic feasibility of a total wastewater treatment network system (TWTNS) including distributed and terminal WTPs was estimated using life cycle assessment (LCA) and life cycle costing (LCC) methods. Wastewater sources and existing distributed and terminal WTPs in an iron and steel plant were networked. The TWTNS was generated from the optimal solution to a mathematical optimization model and compared to a conventional wastewater treatment system (CWTS). The environmental effect scores of the TWTNS were from 29.6% to 68.3% higher than those of the CWTS because of higher electricity consumption required to pump wastewater to the networked WTPs. However, the life cycle cost of the TWTNS was lower than that of the CWTS by 10.1% because of the decrease of the labor cost resulting from the closing of three distributed WTPs. Overall, the TWTNS was no more eco-efficient than the CWTS because the increase of environmental burdens outweighed the decrease of economic costs.     

建立和完善物流成本核算规范体系

降低物流成本，提高物流效益是现代物流的目标。建立科学规范的物流成本核算体系，是实现这一目标的先决条件和基础性工作。针对我国物流成本核算方面落后的现状，借鉴物流管理先进国家经验，制定我国物流成本核算规范，保证企业物流成本核算有据可依，有章可循。     

Identification of key issues for further investigation in improving the reliability of life-cycle assessments

The interative nature of life-cycle assessment (LCA) means that more details are looked for until a certain level of reliability has been achieved. This paper is concerned with the identification of key issues for further investigation in such an iterative procedure. Key issues in this context are defined as those aspects of an LCA which need more detailed research to arrive at a solid conclusion. The main concept in the context of finding key issues is the study of the propagation of uncertainties in underlying data. The structured procedure of LCA can be described in mathematical terms, so that standard mathematical techniques for the study of the propagation of uncertainties can be employed. The influence of uncertainties in input data on uncertainties in output data can be calculated, and the main source of the resulting uncertainties can be identified. The result of the analysis is a list of prioritized key issues for more detailed research and more accurate data.     

气体燃料发动机发展对中国温室气体减排贡献的生命周期分析

为分析气体燃料发动机的温室气体减排能力,应用生命周期分析方法计算了不同燃料的生命周期温室气体排放量,并据此计算了不同发动机的温室气体排放量.建立了气体燃料发动机“最大限度发展”和“不发展”两种情形.据此预测了2020年中国气体燃料发动机的温室气体减排效果,估算了2020年气体燃料发动机的耗气量占气体供应量的比重.结果显示,在最大限度发展情形下,气体燃料发动机将分别为城市公共交通、船舶动力和火力发电领域减少约7.47, 18.25, 450.1Mt CO2e的温室气体,减排量占全国减排目标的5.3%.气体燃料发动机将分别消耗15%的天然气、18.5%的煤层气和50%的垃圾填埋气供应量.考虑我国气体燃料资源结构情况及供应形势,推广气体燃料发动机是切实可行的.     

Life cycle assessments of municipal solid waste management systems: A comparative analysis of selected peer-reviewed literature

Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a popular tool used to evaluate the environmental performance of municipal solid waste (MSW) management systems. Although reviews of LCAs of MSW have been undertaken to assess the validity of the ‘waste hierarchy,’ a recent review of the goal, scope and results of LCAs of mixed-material MSW management systems has yet to be performed. This paper is a comparative analysis of 20 process-based LCAs of MSW published between 2002 and 2008 in a total of 11 English-language peer-reviewed journals. It quantifies the methodological transparency of the studies and the frequency of use of particular system boundaries, types of data sources, environmental impact categories, impact weightings, economic valuations, sensitivity analyses, and LCA computer models. Net energy use (NEU), global warming potential (GWP), and acidification potential (AP) values for various types of MSW management systems are also compared using statistical indicators.The reviewed LCAs differ substantially in their system boundaries. Half or more of the LCAs either do not mention or are unclear in whether or not life cycle emissions from energy inputs or capital equipment are included in the calculation of results. Only four impact categories are common to more than half of the reviewed LCAs. The human and ecological toxicity impact categories are much less common than global warming potential, acidification, and eutrophication.A financial life cycle costing is present in eight of the reviewed LCAs, while an economic valuation of the environmental impacts is observed in five. Explicit sensitivity analyses are present in 4/20 of the studies, although many more LCAs evaluate the effects of varying model parameters by increasing the number of waste management scenarios. There is no consensus on whether or not to use the marginal or average source of electricity in calculating environmental impacts. Eight out of the 20 do not mention this source while the remaining LCAs are evenly split between the marginal and average electricity source. One quarter of the reviewed LCAs supply weighted results for the overall environmental performance of MSW management scenarios. All but one of these concurred with the ‘hierarchy of waste’ that the environmental performance of landfilling is lower than that of all the other treatment methods, and that thermal treatments are inferior to recycling.The comparative analyses of the NEU, GWP and AP results are based on 37, 45, and 42 MSW management scenarios, respectively. As measures of statistical dispersion, the interquartile ranges of the NEU, GWP and AP values are lowest for the landfilling (AP, NEU) and thermal treatment (GWP) scenarios. The results of the statistical analysis of the NEU, AP and GWP values appear to indicate that thermal treatment scenarios have a better environmental performance than landfilling, while the results for mixed treatment scenarios are less obvious. A comparison of the relative environmental performances of MSW treatment scenario types within each study did not provide a clear confirmation or repudiation of the waste hierarchy.This paper concludes that many recently published LCAs do not ensure that the methodological assumptions are made clear to the reader. Lack of transparency makes the results difficult to interpret, and hampers meaningful comparisons between the LCA results. A convergence in the adoption of particular assumptions that are more representative of MSW management systems would facilitate the comparison of the results.     

防污漆活性物质敌草隆对两代摇蚊的生命周期毒性

为了对防污漆杀生活性物质敌草隆的环境毒性进行评估,根据《沉积物-水体中摇蚊生命周期毒性试验—水体加标法或沉积物加标法》(OECD-233),以底栖生物花翅摇蚊为试验对象,通过添加敌草隆的上覆水溶液(浓度设置为1.22 mg·L~(-1)、1.94mg·L~(-1)、3.08 mg·L~(-1)、4.88 mg·L~(-1)、7.74 mg·L~(-1)和12.26 mg·L~(-1))对两代花翅摇蚊先后进行暴露,研究其对摇蚊孵化、发育、羽化和繁殖等阶段的影响。结果显示,敌草隆对亲代花翅摇蚊及其子代的羽化率产生抑制,EC_(50)值分别为7.56 mg·L~(-1)和5.24 mg·L~(-1),子代对敌草隆的耐受性有所降低;还对亲代和子代发育率产生抑制,EC_(50)分别为5 mg·L~(-1)和4.33 mg·L~(-1),表明子代对敌草隆的敏感性增加;敌草隆能够影响两代花翅摇蚊的雌雄性别比率,浓度-效应曲线均呈倒"U"型;另外,随着暴露浓度的增加,两代花翅摇蚊所产卵的孵化率均下降,亲代和子代的EC_(50)分别为2.53 mg·L~(-1)和10.4 mg·L~(-1),提示子代所产卵对敌草隆的抗性增强;同样地,敌草隆对两代花翅摇蚊的繁殖力均有抑制作用,亲代EC_(50)值为1.99 mg·L~(-1),子代EC_(50)为2.68 mg·L~(-1)。总之,敌草隆暴露对花翅摇蚊上述生活史各阶段均能造成不利影响,其中在羽化和发育阶段可观察到敌草隆毒性的累积,而就卵的孵化率而言,子代所产卵较母代所产卵对敌草隆表现出一定程度的抗性。     

基于斑马鱼全生命周期毒性测试的研究进展

作为一种模式生物,斑马鱼具有很多优点,包括体积小、成本低、适应性广、繁殖周期短、胚胎透明且产卵量高等,因而被广泛应用于生态毒理学等领域。斑马鱼的生命阶段主要包括胚胎、仔鱼和成鱼3个阶段。近年来,斑马鱼全生命周期的毒理学研究所占比重不断上升并呈稳定增长的趋势。本文对斑马鱼3个生命阶段及整个生命周期的毒性试验展开综述,介绍了斑马鱼全生命周期实验在毒理学中的研究进展,总结了各生命阶段国内外的标准规范和资源库信息、毒理学终点及转基因斑马鱼的研究进展,归纳了多阶段毒性评价和整个生命周期毒性评价的应用。最后,对全生命周期和基于斑马鱼毒性测试的应用做出展望,对未来开展的相关研究提出建议。     

Modeling Waste Incineration for Life-Cycle Inventory Analysis in Switzerland

This paper proposes a mathematical model for life-cycle inventory analysis (LCI) of waste incineration in Switzerland. In order to model conventional and new incineration technologies adequately, fundamental aspects of the different technologies relevant for the LCI are discussed. The environmental impact of these technologies strongly depends on the assessment of the long-term emissions of the solid incineration residues and is therefore related to value based decisions about the time horizon considered. The article illustrates that the choice of the landfill model has a significant influence on the results of life-cycle assessment of waste incineration.     

Fibre reinforced polymers in the sports industry – Life Cycle Engineering methodology applied to a snowboard using anisotropic layer design

Technological development has had huge impacts in sports performance throughout the years, fostering the development of specific materials and manufacturing processes for sports-related products. Within this context, a new technology for snowboards was developed taking advantage of the internal coupling effects of Fibre Reinforced Plastics (FRP) using an anisotropic layer design. This work deals with the technical, economic and environmental evaluation of a snowboard made of three alternative materials, namely carbon, glass and flax fibre reinforced plastics. It shows how a life cycle analysis can support the design and development of products by applying a Life Cycle Engineering methodology to the design process of a snowboard using an innovative technology. In this case, both the material choice and the fiber placement angles have a significant impact on the stiffness of the resulting FRP and thus in the three dimensions of analysis - cost, environmental and technical. The natural fiber is the most sustainable option environmentally, the glass fiber is the best one economically and the carbon fibre is the best in terms of technical performance. Therefore, the importance attributed to each dimension of analysis is pondered and traded-off to allow an aggregated analysis of the alternatives and a well-informed decision-making.     

Waste Management and Climate Change

Waste management has at least five types of impacts on climate change, attributable to: (1) landfill methane emissions; (2) reduction in industrial energy use and emissions due to recycling and waste reduction; (3) energy recovery from waste; (4) carbon sequestration in forests due to decreased demand for virgin paper; and (5) energy used in long-distance transport of waste: A recent USEPA study provides estimates of overall per-tonne greenhouse gas reductions due to recycling. Plausible calculations using these estimates suggest that countries such as the US or Australia could realise substantial greenhouse gas reductions through increased recycling, particularly of paper.