• Energy Research

This paper aims to compare the environmental performance of two types of refractory bricks for the internal lining of ladles in secondary steelmaking, where the dissolved inclusions coming from the refractory material require fine control to obtain the target steel quality. In this context, magnesia-carbon-based refractories are largely utilized, thanks to the adequate durability of the ladle lining in terms of number of heats before re-lining, but the utilization of organic binders in the mixture (pitch, resins) arises ecological and human health concerns. Concurrently, research efforts in refractory material science look at improving the quality of steel by reducing the content of dissolved carbon due to the release from the bricks, thus focusing on different refractory materials and specifically on alumina-based materials. The European Commission funded the research project “LeanStory”, aiming to promote such new lines of refractories through the cooperation between industrial partners and scholars where different recipes are considered. In the present paper, two representative systems of the refractory types considered, magnesia-carbon and magnesia-alumina, are compared with a preliminary Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). Suppliers and transports for the two product systems have been taken into account, referring to one tonne of refractory material as the functional unit for comparison. Preliminary impact results (adopting the ReCiPe Midpoint–Hierarchist perspective methodology for calculating the impact indicators) show that the new solution performs largely better almost for each indicator. Further investigations are required in order to assess the ecological performance of the two systems, considering the effective consumption of bricks for the production of steel.

The agri-food supply chain is responsible for high GHG emissions. In industrial food processing, there is potential for reducing environmental impacts. In the case of apricot jam, several practices for realizing the finished product can be adopted. If, on the one hand, the scientific literature provides detailed studies on the economic aspects of the existing practices, on the other hand, a comprehensive assessment of the most common production practices from an environmental perspective is not provided. Apricot jam production can be based on two different kinds of raw materials: fresh fruit and the so-called “semi-finished product”, which is obtained by treating fresh fruits with mechanical and thermal processes. The most extended shelf-life of the semi-finished product allows for the adoption of more flexible production practices, leading to increased production performance and ensuring more efficient transportation strategies. In environmental terms, the convenience of this approach compared to adopting fresh fruit is questionable. The aim of this paper is to compare the environmental impacts due to these two different production and transport practices of apricot jam. Consistent with this end, a Life Cycle Assessment methodology has been adopted to evaluate the environmental impact of each step in the apricot jam supply chain. Research results suggest that the use of fresh apricots in the production of jams has a lower environmental impact (about 50–65% without considering transport activities) than the use of semi-finished products, and that losses due to the short shelf-life of fresh fruit limits the transportation distance of the raw and fresh material, also depending on the transport mode adopted (in the range of 875–4450 km). This highlights the need to adopt more clean and sustainable practices in the current industrial food processes.

The aim of the present paper is to give a contribution on the debate regarding the environmental impact, in terms of GHG emissions, of material handling activities performed with LPG or electrically powered forklift trucks. A model of the operations performed by the trucks, based upon a decomposition approach into elementary steps, is illustrated and data drawn from technical sheets are employed, in order to evaluate the required times and the associated energy consumption. Recharging cycles of batteries and the emissions associated with recycle / reconditioning process at their end of life are also taken into account. Comparisons are then carried out for a reference storage of units. The results obtained lead to conclude that electrically powered trucks are always advantageous over LPG powered ones with the same rated load capacity in the examined range and under the stated assumptions, both under the environmental aspect and the economic point of view, with the assumed figures of the cost of energy.