IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ecomod/v222y2011i1p176-189.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Material, energy and environmental performance of technological and social systems under a Life Cycle Assessment perspective

Author

Listed:
  • Ulgiati, S.
  • Ascione, M.
  • Bargigli, S.
  • Cherubini, F.
  • Franzese, P.P.
  • Raugei, M.
  • Viglia, S.
  • Zucaro, A.

Abstract

Selected energy and material resource conversion systems are compared in this paper under an extended LCA point of view. A multi-method multi-scale assessment procedure is applied in order to generate consistent performance indicators based on the same set of input data, to ascertain the existence of constraints or crucial steps characterized by low conversion efficiency and to provide the basis for improvement patterns. Optimizing the performance of a given process requires that many different aspects are taken into account. Some of them, mostly of technical nature, relate to the local scale at which the process occurs. Other technological, economic and environmental aspects are likely to affect the dynamics of the larger space and time scales in which the process is embedded. These spatial and time scale effects require that a careful evaluation of the relation between the process and its surroundings is performed, so that hidden consequences and possible sources of inefficiency and impact are clearly identified. In this paper we analyse and compare selected electricity conversion systems, alternative fuels and biofuels, waste management strategies and finally the time evolution of an urban system, in order to show the importance of a multiple perspective point of view for the proper evaluation of a system's environmental and resource use performance.

Suggested Citation

  • Ulgiati, S. & Ascione, M. & Bargigli, S. & Cherubini, F. & Franzese, P.P. & Raugei, M. & Viglia, S. & Zucaro, A., 2011. "Material, energy and environmental performance of technological and social systems under a Life Cycle Assessment perspective," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 222(1), pages 176-189.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecomod:v:222:y:2011:i:1:p:176-189
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2010.09.005
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0304380010004618
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2010.09.005?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lozano, M.A. & Valero, A., 1993. "Theory of the exergetic cost," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 18(9), pages 939-960.
    2. Bargigli, Silvia & Raugei, Marco & Ulgiati, Sergio, 2004. "Comparison of thermodynamic and environmental indexes of natural gas, syngas and hydrogen production processes," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 29(12), pages 2145-2159.
    3. Cherubini, Francesco & Bargigli, Silvia & Ulgiati, Sergio, 2009. "Life cycle assessment (LCA) of waste management strategies: Landfilling, sorting plant and incineration," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 34(12), pages 2116-2123.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Fahd, S. & Fiorentino, G. & Mellino, S. & Ulgiati, S., 2012. "Cropping bioenergy and biomaterials in marginal land: The added value of the biorefinery concept," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 37(1), pages 79-93.
    2. Sergiy Smetana & Christine Tamásy & Alexander Mathys & Volker Heinz, 2015. "Sustainability and regions: sustainability assessment in regional perspective," Regional Science Policy & Practice, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 7(4), pages 163-186, November.
    3. Mariana Oliveira & Mécia Miguel & Sven Kevin Langen & Amos Ncube & Amalia Zucaro & Gabriella Fiorentino & Renato Passaro & Remo Santagata & Nick Coleman & Benjamin H. Lowe & Sergio Ulgiati & Andrea Ge, 2021. "Circular Economy and the Transition to a Sustainable Society: Integrated Assessment Methods for a New Paradigm," Circular Economy and Sustainability, Springer, vol. 1(1), pages 99-113, June.
    4. Agostinho, Feni & Bertaglia, Ana B.B. & Almeida, Cecília M.V.B. & Giannetti, Biagio F., 2015. "Influence of cellulase enzyme production on the energetic–environmental performance of lignocellulosic ethanol," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 315(C), pages 46-56.
    5. Buonocore, Elvira & Franzese, Pier Paolo & Ulgiati, Sergio, 2012. "Assessing the environmental performance and sustainability of bioenergy production in Sweden: A life cycle assessment perspective," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 37(1), pages 69-78.
    6. Franzese, Pier Paolo & Buonocore, Elvira & Donnarumma, Luigia & Russo, Giovanni F., 2017. "Natural capital accounting in marine protected areas: The case of the Islands of Ventotene and S. Stefano (Central Italy)," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 360(C), pages 290-299.
    7. L. Hay & A. H. B. Duffy & R. I. Whitfield, 2017. "The S‐Cycle Performance Matrix: Supporting Comprehensive Sustainability Performance Evaluation of Technical Systems," Systems Engineering, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 20(1), pages 45-70, January.
    8. Raugei, Marco & Rugani, Benedetto & Benetto, Enrico & Ingwersen, Wesley W., 2014. "Integrating emergy into LCA: Potential added value and lingering obstacles," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 271(C), pages 4-9.
    9. Häyhä, Tiina & Franzese, Pier Paolo, 2014. "Ecosystem services assessment: A review under an ecological-economic and systems perspective," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 289(C), pages 124-132.
    10. Buonocore, Elvira & Häyhä, Tiina & Paletto, Alessandro & Franzese, Pier Paolo, 2014. "Assessing environmental costs and impacts of forestry activities: A multi-method approach to environmental accounting," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 271(C), pages 10-20.
    11. Rótolo, G.C. & Montico, S. & Francis, C.A. & Ulgiati, S., 2015. "How land allocation and technology innovation affect the sustainability of agriculture in Argentina Pampas: An expanded life cycle analysis," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 141(C), pages 79-93.
    12. Chong, Yih Tng & Teo, Kwong Meng & Tang, Loon Ching, 2016. "A lifecycle-based sustainability indicator framework for waste-to-energy systems and a proposed metric of sustainability," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 797-809.
    13. Häyhä, Tiina & Franzese, Pier Paolo & Ulgiati, Sergio, 2011. "Economic and environmental performance of electricity production in Finland: A multicriteria assessment framework," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 223(1), pages 81-90.
    14. Li, Tianqi & Roskilly, Anthony Paul & Wang, Yaodong, 2018. "Life cycle sustainability assessment of grid-connected photovoltaic power generation: A case study of Northeast England," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 227(C), pages 465-479.
    15. Gala, Alba Bala & Raugei, Marco & Ripa, Maddalena & Ulgiati, Sergio, 2015. "Dealing with waste products and flows in life cycle assessment and emergy accounting: Methodological overview and synergies," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 315(C), pages 69-76.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Sevigné Itoiz, E. & Gasol, C.M & Farreny, R. & Rieradevall, J. & Gabarrell, X., 2013. "CO2ZW: Carbon footprint tool for municipal solid waste management for policy options in Europe. Inventory of Mediterranean countries," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 623-632.
    2. Beretta, Gian Paolo & Iora, Paolo & Ghoniem, Ahmed F., 2014. "Allocating resources and products in multi-hybrid multi-cogeneration: What fractions of heat and power are renewable in hybrid fossil-solar CHP?," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 587-603.
    3. Lukas Kriechbaum & Philipp Gradl & Romeo Reichenhauser & Thomas Kienberger, 2020. "Modelling Grid Constraints in a Multi-Energy Municipal Energy System Using Cumulative Exergy Consumption Minimisation," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(15), pages 1-23, July.
    4. Shi, Yi & Deng, Yawen & Wang, Guoan & Xu, Jiuping, 2020. "Stackelberg equilibrium-based eco-economic approach for sustainable development of kitchen waste disposal with subsidy policy: A case study from China," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 196(C).
    5. Gad, M.S. & Uysal, Cuneyt & El-Shafay, A.S. & Ağbulut, Ümit, 2024. "Exergetic and exergoeconomic assessments of a diesel engine fuelled with waste chicken fat biodiesel-diesel blends," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 293(C).
    6. Jacopo Zotti & Andrea Bigano, 2019. "Write circular economy, read economy’s circularity. How to avoid going in circles," Economia Politica: Journal of Analytical and Institutional Economics, Springer;Fondazione Edison, vol. 36(2), pages 629-652, July.
    7. Nabavi-Pelesaraei, Ashkan & Azadi, Hossein & Van Passel, Steven & Saber, Zahra & Hosseini-Fashami, Fatemeh & Mostashari-Rad, Fatemeh & Ghasemi-Mobtaker, Hassan, 2021. "Prospects of solar systems in production chain of sunflower oil using cold press method with concentrating energy and life cycle assessment," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 223(C).
    8. Pöschl, Martina & Ward, Shane & Owende, Philip, 2010. "Evaluation of energy efficiency of various biogas production and utilization pathways," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 87(11), pages 3305-3321, November.
    9. Kwak, H.-Y. & Kim, D.-J. & Jeon, J.-S., 2003. "Exergetic and thermoeconomic analyses of power plants," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 28(4), pages 343-360.
    10. Khaljani, M. & Khoshbakhti Saray, R. & Bahlouli, K., 2015. "Thermodynamic and thermoeconomic optimization of an integrated gas turbine and organic Rankine cycle," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 93(P2), pages 2136-2145.
    11. Sofia Dahlgren & Jonas Ammenberg, 2021. "Sustainability Assessment of Public Transport, Part II—Applying a Multi-Criteria Assessment Method to Compare Different Bus Technologies," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(3), pages 1-30, January.
    12. Wang, Xurong & Yang, Yi & Zheng, Ya & Dai, Yiping, 2017. "Exergy and exergoeconomic analyses of a supercritical CO2 cycle for a cogeneration application," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 119(C), pages 971-982.
    13. Palacios-Bereche, M.C. & Palacios-Bereche, R. & Ensinas, A.V. & Gallego, A. Garrido & Modesto, Marcelo & Nebra, S.A., 2022. "Brazilian sugar cane industry – A survey on future improvements in the process energy management," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 259(C).
    14. Hatem Abushammala & Muhammad Adil Masood & Salma Taqi Ghulam & Jia Mao, 2023. "On the Conversion of Paper Waste and Rejects into High-Value Materials and Energy," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(8), pages 1-21, April.
    15. Zare, V. & Mahmoudi, S.M.S. & Yari, M. & Amidpour, M., 2012. "Thermoeconomic analysis and optimization of an ammonia–water power/cooling cogeneration cycle," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 47(1), pages 271-283.
    16. G. Perkoulidis & A. Malamakis & G. Banias & N. Moussiopoulos, 2022. "Development of a Methodological Framework for the Evaluation of the Material and Energy Recovery Potential of Municipal Solid Waste Management: Implementation in Five Greek Regions," Circular Economy and Sustainability, Springer, vol. 2(1), pages 313-326, March.
    17. Agostinho, Feni & Almeida, Cecília M.V.B. & Bonilla, Silvia H. & Sacomano, José B. & Giannetti, Biagio F., 2013. "Urban solid waste plant treatment in Brazil: Is there a net emergy yield on the recovered materials?," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 143-155.
    18. Akbulut, Abdullah, 2012. "Techno-economic analysis of electricity and heat generation from farm-scale biogas plant: Çiçekdağı case study," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 44(1), pages 381-390.
    19. Jamie E. Filer & Justin D. Delorit & Andrew J. Hoisington & Steven J. Schuldt, 2020. "Optimizing the Environmental and Economic Sustainability of Remote Community Infrastructure," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(6), pages 1-15, March.
    20. Silva, J.A.M. & Flórez-Orrego, D. & Oliveira, S., 2014. "An exergy based approach to determine production cost and CO2 allocation for petroleum derived fuels," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 490-495.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:ecomod:v:222:y:2011:i:1:p:176-189. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/ecological-modelling .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.