• Energy Research
• Sustainability close

Keywords: Biomass pyrolysis, Chemical Looping Combustion, Life Cycle Assessment, Environmental Impacts, Carbon Footprint.

The latest studies show that to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals on education, there must be a focus on adequately training higher education students. In this work, we present a study about the Life Cycle Analysis of knowledge of products and processes of engineering students. This aspect is very relevant in engineering education since it has direct implications on sustainability. The first step was to identify what the learning problems were, and taking them into account, a specific teaching sequence was designed and implemented over three academic years. Two activities, on an increasing level of complexity, of the application of Life Cycle Assessment are shown in this paper. The first one is the Life Cycle Analysis comparison between two steel and polypropylene pieces. The second one is the Life Cycle Analysis comparison between three different ends of life of a polypropylene piece: mechanical recycling, incineration, and landfill. Data on the evolution of students’ marks while solving a “one step more difficult project” throughout these courses have been collected. The results show a generalized learning by the students about Life Cycle Analysis.

Eco-design is included within the framework of the standard for “Environmental management systems—Guidelines for incorporating Eco-design” (ISO 14006:2011). Eco-design process, as defined in standard, has six steps: (i) Specify product functions; (ii) Environmental assessment of products; (iii) Strategies of improvement; (iv) Environmental objectives; (v) Product specification; and (vi) Technical solutions. Step (ii), determination of the stage or process of the product life cycle that has the highest environmental impact; this is perhaps the most controversial step because the standard does not specify which tool should be used. This lack of specification has generated some distrust with regard to eco-design, hindering its development. In order to make a trustworthy eco-design, Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) should be applied as a tool for environmental impact quantification. The main objective of this work is to apply standardised eco-design methodology for the reduction of the environmental impact of an industrial product in Spain using LCA as a tool for the environmental product assessment. LCA standardised process (ISO 14040,14044:2006) is included in the eco-design process. A glass container intended for cough syrup delivery has been selected as an industrial product to be eco-designed. Following the methodology described, the overall normalised impact decreased 35.1% when a PET container substituted a glass container. Environmental impacts have been reduced following standardised eco-design and LCA methodologies, serving as an example to industry and administration regarding how to eco-design with the confidence of obtaining reliable results.