• Energy Research

Industrial agriculture results in environmental burdens due to the overuse of fertilizers and pesticides. Fungicides is a class of pesticides whose application contributes (among others) to human toxicity and ecotoxicity. The European Union aims to increase organic agriculture. For this reason, this work aims to analyze climate change, freshwater ecotoxicity, terrestrial ecotoxicity, human toxicity, (terrestrial) acidification, and freshwater eutrophication impacts of fungicides and calculate expected benefits to human health (per European citizen) and ecosystem quality (terrestrial) with life cycle assessment (LCA) during crop production. The Scopus database was searched for LCA studies that considered the application of fungicides to specific crops. The analysis shows how many systemic and contact fungicides were considered by LCA studies and what was the applied dosage. Furthermore, it shows that fungicides highly contribute to freshwater ecotoxicity, terrestrial ecotoxicity, human toxicity, and freshwater eutrophication for fruits and vegetables, but to a low extent compared to all considered environmental impacts in the case of cereals and rapeseed. Expected benefits to human health and ecosystem quality after fungicides elimination are greater for fruits and vegetables, ranging between 0 to 47 min per European citizen in a year and 0 to 90 species per year, respectively.

The largest wine producers globally are located in Southern Europe and climate is a major factor in wine production. The European Union aims to complement the consumer’s choice for wine with information about environmental sustainability. The carbon footprint is a worldwide-standardized indicator that both wine producers and consumers perceive as the most important environmental indicator. So far, environmental life cycle assessment studies show variability in the system boundaries design and functional unit selection, and review papers do not include life cycle inventory data, and consider vineyards in various locations worldwide. This study aimed to investigate what are the key factors affecting the carbon footprint of red and white wine production in South European countries with the same climatic conditions, and benchmark both wine types. The results showed that the carbon footprints of white and red wines are comparable. The average carbon footprints were 1.02, 1.25, and 1.62 CO2 eq. bottle of wine −1 for organic red wine, conventional red wine, and conventional white wine, respectively. The viticulture, winemaking, and packaging stages affect greatly the carbon footprint. Diesel consumption at the viticulture stage, electricity consumption at the viticulture and winemaking stages, and glass production at the packaging stage are the largest contributors to the carbon footprint. Wine consumption stage was omitted from most studies, even though it can increase the carbon footprint by 5%. Our results suggest that consumers should choose (conventional or organic) red wine that is produced locally.

Abstract There are various attempts to industrialize the supercritical water gasification (SCWG) of wet biomass process, however, there are still process challenges to overcome. Such challenges include slurry pumpability, energy efficiency, low conversion, char and tar formation, and clogging problems due to salt precipitation. Fortunately, some of the aforementioned challenges can be eliminated by having long residence times, high heating rates and utilization of fluidized bed reactors. This study presents the first results and experiences obtained from the TU Delft/Gensos semi-pilot scale setup which has a capacity of 50 kg/h and incorporates a fluidized bed reactor. A dry starch concentration of 4.4 wt % was used as feedstock. Reactor temperatures of 500 °C, 550 °C and 600 °C, and the mass flow rates of 24.5 kg/h and 35 kg/h were tested. The results indicate that the heating profile in the heat exchanger and the residence time at higher temperatures (>500 °C) play a significant role in the conversion efficiencies. No clogging problem was observed, however small quantities of char (2.3 wt % at highest) and oil production (10.4 wt % at highest) were observed. The highest carbon gasification efficiency was 73.9% and this was obtained at a reactor temperature of 600 °C and at a feed flow rate of 24.5 kg/h.

Social life cycle assessment (SLCA) was developed to complement the environmental life cycle assessment (LCA) and economic assessment. Contrary to LCA, SLCA is not yet standardized, and the consequential approach is little discussed in literature. This study aims to perform a consequential SLCA and investigate the applicability of the method in industrial decision making. The aforementioned assessment is done within the Zero Brine project, which works on zero liquid discharge technology for water, salt, and magnesium recovery from brine effluents. The developed SLCA systems are gate-to-gate, and the analysis is performed at two levels: Hotspot and site-specific. The system boundaries consist of a demineralized water (DW) production company, a chlor–alkali company, an electricity provider, a magnesium distributor in the Netherlands, and a Russian mining company. The latter exists only in the boundaries before the change due to the Zero Brine project, because recovered magnesium is expected to replace the Russian magnesium imported in the Netherlands. Within the system boundaries, the stakeholders contributing the most are the DW and the magnesium distributor companies. The former produces the brine and thus recovers the magnesium and salt. The latter is the exclusive distributor of Russian magnesium in the Netherlands. Overall, we find that the recovered magnesium results in improving social performance mainly in “Freedom of association and collective bargaining”, “Fair salary”, and “Health and Safety” due to decreasing the dependency of the Netherlands on Russia, while increasing operation in a country with much stronger environmental regulation and corporate commitment to sustainability issues. Modelling with SLCA may not result in the expected societal benefits, as the Russian community and workers may not benefit due to the large geographical boundaries of the system under study. Nevertheless, the application of the consequential approach can be considered suitable, yet complicated, for offering decision makers adequate social information. We recommend that decision makers in the DW company invest in magnesium recovery and that decision makers in the magnesium distributor company distribute the recovered magnesium.

Energy efficiency in museums and buildings that house works of art or cultural heritage appears to be a difficult achievement if indoor air quality has to be kept at appropriate levels for artefacts’ long-term sustainability. There is a gap in our scientific literature on the relationship between indoor air quality and energy efficiency, meaning that there are no numerical data that examine both of them simultaneously, although this is a theme that is broadly discussed by museum managers, curators, and scientists. It is certain that the two parameters, indoor air quality (IAQ) and energy efficiency (EEF) are conflicting and difficult to reconcile. Furthermore, IAQ is not only the determination of temperature, relative humidity, and CO2, as is usually presented. Using green or renewable energy does not make a building “energy efficient”. Hence, in the manuscript we review the literature on IAQ of museums and exhibition buildings, in conjunction with the consideration of their EEF. Hopefully, reviewing the literature for this problem may lead to carefully designed monitoring experiments. The selection, application, and testing of appropriate technological measures can lead to a new balance between the two conflicting parameters. Not only must solutions be found, but these solutions are necessary in the mitigation battle against climate change.

Abstract Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a powerful tool for achieving sustainability. Traditional LCAs analyze well defined and developed industrial systems, but recent developments of LCA focus on analyzing emerging technologies which are not yet optimized with respect to energy and materials. Therefore, LCA results of ex-ante applications can be very different from ex-post applications for the same system. The purpose of this study is to show the different effects of data scales on LCA results regarding global warming, fine particulate matter formation, terrestrial acidification and freshwater eutrophication potentials. For this purpose torrefaction technology was selected as the case study and assessed based on bench scale data, lab scale data, data derived from process simulations, pilot scale data and commercial scale data. Considered environmental impacts were global warming, fine particulate matter formation, terrestrial acidification and freshwater eutrophication. Results showed that process efficiencies improved significantly between the bench scale system and systems with higher technology readiness levels (TRLs), such as pilot, process simulations and commercial scale systems. Furthermore, process simulations result in scores closer to commercial scale regarding all considered environmental impacts. However, if LCA practitioners focus only on global warming impact, then pilot scale is also a good alternative. Finally, due to torrefaction technology being relatively simple in terms of raw materials input, we suggest more complex chemical systems to be assessed with LCA in various TRLs.

Torrefaction is a promising biomass upgrading technology as it makes biomass more coal alike and offers benefits in logistics and handling operations. Gasification is an attractive thermochemical conversion technology due to its flexibility in the product gas end-uses. Therefore, it is valuable to investigate whether additional benefits are foreseen when torrefaction is coupled with gasification. Therefore, two commercial torrefied wood fuels and their parent materials are gasified at 800–850 °C under atmospheric steam-oxygen circulating fluidized bed gasification conditions and magnesite as bed material. The torrefied feedstocks consisted of wood residues torrefied by Topell at 250 °C (Topell black), and mixed wood and wood residues torrefied by Torrcoal at 300 °C (Torrcoal black). The gasification results show that torrefaction resulted in an increased gas quality, as it yielded higher H2 and CO contents, a decrease of the CO2 content, increased gas yield and a significant decrease of the total tar content for both feedstocks. For the Torrcoal samples, torrefaction resulted in a decrease in the carbon conversion efficiency (CCE). In addition, the cold gas efficiency (CGE) remained approximately the same due to the increase in the H2 and CO contents. The Topell samples showed an increase in the CCE and CGE upon torrefaction, but this could be attributed to a significant grinding in the screw feeder. It is generally concluded that both torrefied fuels may offer benefits as a feedstock for steam-oxygen blown circulating fluidized bed gasification, in particular in terms of gas quality and yield.