• Energy Research

Successful market penetration of Fuel Cell (FC) technologies requires increased research and technological efforts towards improved efficiency, durability, costs and environmental performance according to accepted standards. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) can help understand to what extent FCs are environmentally sound, to what extent they can be improved and what steps and components require attention. A guidance manual for LCA application to FC technologies, processes and systems, compliant with the International Reference Life Cycle Data System (ILCD), was developed within the European Union-funded Fuel Cell-Hydrogen Guide (FC-Hy Guide) Consortium. The purpose was to provide entrepreneurs, consultants and experts with a specific guidance tool for use in policy context and decision-making. This paper presents the application of the FC-Hy Guide scheme to Molten Carbonate Fuel Cells (MCFC), with focus on the following aspects: (1) data quality; (2) information needed; (3) background and foreground data; (4) FC stack and balance of system; (5) improvement potential; (6) sensitivity of results and data uncertainty.

As China's photovoltaic (PV) sector experiences rapid growth, the availability of land resources has become a pivotal policy focus, driving the need for comprehensive research and strategic planning for roadside PV initiatives. Utilizing a fuzzy multi-criteria decision-making approach, combined with GIS spatial analysis and a modular design framework, our study quantitatively compared the carbon reduction capabilities of PV systems against the carbon sequestration potential of various vegetative arrangements along the roadside space. The roadside space analysis modular considers a range of factors including topography, meteorology, and construction costs. We examined the spatial distribution of suitability for PV installation and vegetation establishment along the provincial expressway network in China. The results revealed that Inner Mongolia stood out as the frontrunner in carbon reduction potential within high-suitability zones for PV construction, achieving an impressive 4.845 million tons of carbon reduction—nearly four times greater than that of Shaanxi Province. In contrast, the carbon sequestration attributed to vegetation greening in areas less suited for PV development revealed a higher propensity in the southeastern provinces. Guangdong led the charge with an impressive annual carbon sequestration of 2.89 million tons. This was closely followed by Yunnan, Sichuan, Hebei, Guizhou, and Henan, each achieving carbon sequestration amounts exceeding 2 million tons. These results offer valuable quantitative support and practical recommendations for achieving low-carbon objectives in the construction of China's expressways.

Abstract A biorefinery is an integrated pattern of farming and conversion activities capable to provide bioenergy and biomaterials as alternative to fossil-based refineries, increasing jobs and income in rural areas. Considering the need to avoid competition with food production in arable land, non-food cropping on marginal land is being explored worldwide focusing on lignocellulosic crops (“second-generation” substrates). The viability of bioenergy and biochemicals from non-food crops in marginal land of Southern Italy was explored, using Brassica carinata as a test crop. An LCA-consistent, integrated evaluation method, named SUMMA (Sustainability multi-scale multi-method Approach) was applied for joint assessment of material, embodied energy, environmental support (emergy) and economic flows and performance. Two hypotheses were tested: (a) cropping for bioenergy (biodiesel + heat); (b) bioenergy and biomaterials within a biorefinery framework. In addition to biodiesel production from seeds, the first hypothesis assumes the conversion of residues (cake meal and straw) into heat for local industrial use, while the second one is based on a lignocellulose-to-chemicals biorefinery. Cropping for bioenergy provides a small net energy yield with no economic return. Instead, converting lignocellulosic residues to high added value biochemicals definitely improves the process performance from both energetic and economic points of view.

In the challenge of transforming waste into useful products that can be re-used in a circular perspective, Italian wine industry can represent a suitable model for the application of the bioeconomy principles, including the valorisation of the agricultural and food waste. In the present study, a comprehensive environmental assessment of the traditional production of wine was performed and the potentiality of a biorefinery system, based on winery waste and aimed at recovering useful bio-based products, such as grapeseed oil and calcium tartrate, was examined through Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). The wine company "I Borboni", producing Asprinio wine in the Campania Region (Italy), was proposed as a case study. The hotspots of the linear production system were identified and the bottling phase, in particular the production of packaging glass, resulted to contribute to the generation of impacts at 63%, on average, versus 14.3% of the agricultural phase and 22.7% of the vinification phase. The LCA results indicated human carcinogenic toxicity, freshwater eutrophication and fossil resource scarcity impact categories as the most affected ones, with normalized impacts amounting to 9.22E-03, 3.89E-04 and 2.64E-04, respectively. Two side production chains (grapeseed oil and tartrate production) were included and circular patterns were designed and introduced in the traditional production chain with the aim of valorising the winery residues and improving the overall environmental performance. By implementing the circular approach, environmental impacts in the global warming, freshwater eutrophication and mineral resource scarcity impact categories, in particular, resulted three times lower than in the linear system. The results achieved demonstrated that closing the loops in the wine industry, through the reuse of bio-based residues alternatively to fossil-based inputs within the production process, and integrating the traditional production system with new side production chains led to an upgrade of the wineries to biorefineries, towards more sustainable production patterns.

Abstract The reduction of energy demand and greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions is a main target of the chemical industry. By implementing Best Practice Technologies (BPTs) (i.e. the most advanced technologies currently in use at industrial scale) as well as by implementing recycling and energy recovery strategies through cogeneration and process intensification, consistent energy savings and CO2 emissions reduction can be achieved in the short to medium term. Long-term additional cuts may arise from development and deployment of “game changer” technologies, that re-invent the way some large-volume chemicals are made. Although still far from commercial maturity and still facing high economic and technical hurdles, switching to the use of non-food biomass as fuel and feedstock in the chemical industry may represent a suitable option. During the transition towards a more energy efficient chemistry, the environmental performance of bio-based products need to be carefully evaluated on a case-by-case basis. In this study, an overview of energy improvement options is provided and the different patterns of bioethanol as fuel to generate energy or as platform chemical to generate chemical derivatives are compared as a case study within a life cycle perspective. The consequences on the environmental sustainability of the chemical industry are envisaged.

Unidad de excelencia María de Maeztu MdM-2015-0552 A key strategy towards sustainable urban development is designing cities for increased circular metabolism. The transformation of areas underused, such as urban rooftops, into productive spaces is being increasingly implemented as a result of associated multiple benefits. Rooftop greenhouses (RTGs) are an interesting option for exploiting urban rooftops with direct exposure to sunlight, reducing food miles and creating new agricultural spaces, while building-applied solar photovoltaic (BAPV) panels provide clean energy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. However, a proper assessment of environmental costs and benefits related to both systems is vital for a successful implementation. By means of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) method, modelled in the professional software SimaPro, this paper aims at comparing the environmental performance of different productive uses of rooftops under Mediterranean climatic conditions. The results showed that both systems are favourable and contribute to decreasing the environmental impacts thanks to the production of resources on-site. BAPV system shows the highest avoided burdens in comparison with RTG: for instance, the impacts generated by BAPV on climate change and fossil depletion categories, corresponding to - 430 kg CO₂ eq/m² and - 110 kg oil eq/m² respectively (versus - 22 kg CO₂ eq/m² and - 4.7 kg oil eq/m² in the RTG system), are around 20 times lower than RTG. Furthermore, a sensitivity analysis was performed through different scenarios, based on reductions or substitution of the most sensitive input flows, thus providing some useful tools for improved environmental performances. Attention to additional energy and material efficiency, in favour of the more environmentally sustainable choice, should remain a main point of investigation.

Purpose: The olive oil sector in Italy has a significant socio-economic, environmental, and cultural relevance. However, the environmental impacts of production and consumption models are considerable, mainly due to the demand for large quantities of resources (fuels, chemicals) and to the environmental impacts of residues’ disposal. Due to the scarcity of resources and climate change concerns, circular economy principles based on industrial ecology concepts are emerging. In this paper, the principles of circular economy were specifically applied to the olive oil supply chain, to improve the environmental sustainability of the sector. Methods: The production chain of extra virgin olive oil was analyzed using the Life Cycle Assessment method, based on primary data from an oil farm and mill in Southern Italy. The environmental impacts were evaluated through the SimaPro software and the ReCiPe 2016 Mid-point (H) Impact Assessment Method, with reference to the functional unit of 1-L bottle of extra virgin olive oil. Some circular improvement options were investigated, comparing the impacts generated by (i) extra virgin olive oil linear production without valorization of by-products, (ii) extra virgin olive oil linear production with allocation of total impacts to co-products, and (iii) two circular production systems, incorporating improvements such as replacement of diesel with biodiesel and of electricity from the national grid with energy recovered from residues. Results and discussion: The environmental impacts of the business-as-usual production pattern were identified for possible improvements. In all phases of the production chain of organic extra virgin olive oil, the most affected impact categories were human carcinogenic toxicity, marine ecotoxicity, and terrestrial ecotoxicity. As expected, the major contributions to almost all the analyzed impact categories were determined by the agricultural phase (92.65%), followed by the bottling phase (7.13%) and the oil extraction phase (0.22%). The valorization of by-products was considered by widening the system boundaries to ensure the environmental sustainability by developing circular patterns that feedback waste materials to upstream steps of the same process. The environmental impacts resulted lower in almost all the impact categories, with the major benefits gained in the global warming and fossil depletion impact categories. Conclusions: The analysis proved that the reuse of pomace, prunings, and exhausted cooking oil initially considered as waste can bring benefits from an environmental point of view to the larger scale of the economy, by replacing fossil fuels, as well as to the olive oil chain itself, by providing the needed energy for production.

Abstract The analysis of complex systems requires an integrated application of different assessment methods also taking into account different scales and points of view to gain a systemic understanding of the investigated case study. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Emergy Accounting (EMA) are both environmental assessment methods, showing many similarities in the way they are performed, especially with respect to the inventory construction and to the interpretation of results. They also show great differences, the main residing in the different perspectives they give. LCA applies a consumer side perspective, and its space and time scales are set at a boundary capable to include all the process phases in terms of location and durability and their direct impacts on the investigated areas. On the other hand, throughout its donor side perspective, EMA expands the boundaries of the system over the entire biosphere space and time scales. Differences and similarities between LCA and EMA may gain added value by their implementation within a procedural framework which exploits the characteristics of the two methods. The present work proposes a methodological procedure based on the sequential and integrated application of LCA and EMA methods, called LEAF (LCA & EMA Applied Framework). The traditional Amalfi paper production is used as a test case study. The procedure stems include: (i) an ex-ante LCA analysis, to identify the hotspots of the investigated case study; (ii) the assessment of the environmental performance of the system through the development of different EMA-based improvement scenarios built around the chosen hotspots; and (iii) an ex-post LCA application built on each scenario results in order to detect the different environmental burdens. The application of LEAF to the traditional Amalfi paper production shows that the use of a more sustainable energy source is an effective solution (among the set of proposed options) to increase the sustainability of the investigated system.