Evaluating the life cycle environmental performance of chlorine disinfection and ultraviolet technologies

With increasing emphasis on promoting a sustainable ecological future and concern over introducing a toxic chemical in the water, the design of the disinfection process is increasingly leaning toward technologies that destroy the pathogens while balancing the effects of this disinfected wastewater on the population of aquatic biota or a drinking water supply. Since ultraviolet (UV) irradiation is not a chemical additive, it does not leave or produce any by-product toxic compounds in the wastewater, like traditional chlorination and de-chlorination processes do. Therefore, the use of UV does not affect a drinking water supply or the aquatic biota in receiving waters. Life cycle assessment or analysis (LCA) is used to quantify the environmental benefits of using UV disinfection technology (as well as better protecting public health), instead of chlorination and de-chlorination methods. LCA tools are being used to evaluate the short and long term environmental effects of both processes, and to select the best sustainable process. The approach here combines environmental LCA with these disinfection processes incorporating economic criteria and all aspects of the environment: chemical use, electricity use, and releases to water, air, and land. The environmental, health, and economic benefits and other effects show the greater sustainability of UV technology (a "clean" ecological disinfection process) in comparison to that of traditional disinfection with chlorine. Electronic Publication     

An Internet of Energy Things Based on Wireless LPWAN

Under intense environmental pressure, the global energy sector is promoting the integration of renewable energy into interconnected energy systems. The demand-side management (DSM) of energy systems has drawn considerable industrial and academic attention in attempts to form new flexibilities to respond to variations in renewable energy inputs to the system. However, many DSM concepts are still in the experimental demonstration phase. One of the obstacles to DSM usage is that the current information infrastructure was mainly designed for centralized systems, and does not meet DSM requirements. To overcome this barrier, this paper proposes a novel information infrastructure named the Internet of Energy Things (IoET) in order to make DSM practicable by basing it on the latest wireless communication technology: the low-power wide-area network (LPWAN). The primary advantage of LPWAN over general packet radio service (GPRS) and area Internet of Things (IoT) is its wide-area coverage, which comes with minimum power consumption and maintenance costs. Against this background, this paper briefly reviews the representative LPWAN technologies of narrow-band Internet of Things (NB-IoT) and Long Range (LoRa) technology, and compares them with GPRS and area IoT technology. Next, a wireless-to-cloud architecture is proposed for the IoET, based on the main technical features of LPWAN. Finally, this paper looks forward to the potential of IoET in various DSM application scenarios.     

Life cycle assessment of membrane-based carbon capture and storage

Many investigations have conducted life cycle assessments (LCA) of the most commonly discussed routes of carbon capture and storage (CCS): post-combustion with amine wash separation; oxyfuel using cryogenic air separation and pre-combustion by integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) using physical separation. A research alliance developed corresponding separation systems using different types of membranes to allow a more energy efficient separation process: polyactive polymeric membranes for post-combustion, ceramic membranes for oxyfuel and metallic membranes for IGCC separation. By conducting an LCA, the study examines the actual greenhouse gas emissions and other environmental impacts of the new membrane separation technologies, together with concepts implementing the more common technologies. The reference systems represent today’s state-of-the-art supercritical coal fired power plant in Germany, together with a more advanced ultra-supercritical plant operating at 700 °C without CO₂ capture. The results demonstrate that among the three reference power plants the IGCC is the superior concept due to the highest efficiency. Regarding climate change, the IGCC power plants with CO₂ capture are still the best concepts. When other environmental impacts are considered, the capture technologies are inferior. The membrane concepts show the overall better results in comparison to the conventional capture technologies. The environmental impacts for membrane applications add a new range of findings to the field of CCS LCAs. Now the results for several different approaches can be compared directly for the first time.     

Product category rules and environmental product declarations as tools to promote sustainable products: experiences from a case study of furniture production

New requirements and regulations have increased the pressure on companies to provide information on their products. This is challenging for small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) since they lack both expertise and resources. In this paper, the possibilities to develop environmental product declarations (EPDs) for products with use of data-assistant tools are explored. A case study of furniture production in Norway is used to exemplify this. A database with specific environmental data for materials used in furniture has been developed. The database is used to conduct the life cycle assessment (LCA) for selected products and is the backbone of a data-assistance tool used to design and present the EPDs. Five key performance indicators are selected. The database and these KPIs ensures standardised assessments of products that enables both comparison of existing products as well as assessment of environmental performance of redesigned products and potential new products. This paper shows how this enables the SMEs to both provide environmental performance information to stakeholders as well as enables them to identify possible improvements with limited resources and competence on environmental performance and LCAs.     

A process systems framework for rapid generation of life cycle inventories for pollution control and sustainability evaluation

Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a tool that aids in sustainable decision-making among product and process alternatives. When implementing LCA, the efficient and accurate modeling of chemical processes for life cycle inventory (LCI) generation is still challenging. Challenges include a lack of systematic design and simulation tools and approaches to develop chemical process models for obtaining and analyzing more realistic LCI results. In this contribution, a novel process systems framework is proposed for estimating LCI results when implementing pollution control technologies. This framework involves the development and incorporation of pollution control unit (PCU) modules into process simulation and generation of LCI data associated with the PCUs for use in a sustainability evaluation. Different pollution control modules are designed for rapid LCI estimation and applied to obtain emissions, utility consumption, material, and land footprint results related to waste streams of a process simulation. Then, the LCI results are analyzed with the objectives of minimizing the environmental impact and utility consumption. The proposed framework is illustrated via a biomass/coal gasification process for syngas production with the end goal of acetic acid manufacturing. Results associated with this case study show that the developed framework can provide guidelines for sustainable decision-making based on generated LCI results.     

The effect of greenhouse gas policy on the design and scheduling of biodiesel plants with multiple feedstocks

With the increasing attention to the environmental impact of discharging greenhouses gases, there has been a growing public pressure to reduce the carbon footprint associated with the use of fossil fuels. In this context, one of the key strategies is the substitution of fossil fuels with biofuels such as biodiesel. The design of biodiesel production facilities has traditionally been carried out based on technical and economic criteria. Greenhouse gas (GHG) policies (e.g., carbon tax, subsidy) have the potential to significantly alter the design of these facilities, the selection of the feedstocks, and the scheduling of multiple feedstocks. The objective of this article is to develop a systematic approach to the design and scheduling of biodiesel production processes while accounting for the effect of GHG policies in addition to the technical, economic, and environmental aspects. An optimization formulation is developed to maximize the profit of the process subject to flowsheet synthesis and performance modeling equations. Furthermore, the carbon footprint is accounted for with the help of a life cycle analysis (LCA). The objective function includes a term which reflects the impact of the LCA of a feedstock and its processing to biodiesel. A multiperiod approach is used to discretize the decision-making horizon into time periods. During each period, decisions are made on the type and flowrate of the feedstocks, as well as the associated design and operating variables. A case study is solved with several scenarios of feedstocks and GHG policies.     

Development of a multitechnology field-programmable gate array suitable for photonic information processing

The architecture of a novel, multitechnology field-programmable gate array (FPGA) is introduced. Based on conventional complementary metal-oxide semiconductor VLSI technology this architecture has demonstrated the feasibility of reconfigurable and programmable hardware for prototyping photonic information processing systems. We report that this new FPGA architecture will enable the design of reconfigurable systems that incorporated technologies outside the traditional electronic domain. The smart photoreceivers monolithically integrated in the new FPGA architecture can receive optically encoded signals in parallel and process them with user programmable logic hardware.     

Prospects for public participation on nuclear risks and policy options: innovations in governance practices for sustainable development in the European Union

We outline the potential participative governance and risk management in application to technological choices in the nuclear sector within the European Union (EU). Well-conducted public participation, stakeholder consultation and deliberation procedures can enhance the policy process and improve the robustness of strategies dealing with high-stakes investment and risk management challenges. Key nuclear issues now confronting EU member states are: public concern with large-scale environmental and health issues; the Chernobyl accident (and others less catastrophic) whose effect has been to erode public confidence and trust in the nuclear sector; the maturity of the nuclear plant, hence the emerging prominence of waste transportation, reprocessing and disposal issues as part of historical liability within the EU; the nuclear energy heritage of central and eastern European candidate countries to EU accession. The obligatory management of inherited technological risks and uncertainties on large temporal and geographical scales, is a novel feature of technology assessment and governance. Progress in the nuclear sector will aid the development of methodologies for technological foresight and risk governance in fields other than the nuclear alone.     

Choice of Life Cycle Assessment Software Can Impact Packaging System Decisions

A number of software packages are available that are designed to facilitate making environmental comparisons between different packaging options, to facilitate ‘green’ packaging design and assessment of the environmental aspect of sustainability. Some of these (e.g. SimaPro and GaBi) are full‐fledged ISO 14040/14044‐compliant programs for life cycle assessment (LCA). Others are more limited, but are designed to be much simpler to use (e.g. COMPASS and Package Modeling). A systematic comparison of the evaluation of several packaging systems using COMPASS, SimaPro, GaBi, and Package Modeling found significant discrepancies in LCA results from different software systems. Availability of common impact categories among the software limited comparisons to four categories: greenhouse gas emissions, fossil fuel/non‐renewable energy, eutrophication, and water depletion. Given a common set of basic packaging containers as input, results from the LCA software systems being studied disagreed on which container had the greatest environmental impact, and in some cases results were more than an order of magnitude different between software. Discrepancies in results occurred in all four impact categories, and all four software systems disagreed with each other at multiple points in the comparisons. If there is to be increasing use of LCA analysis in guiding packaging design, this issue must be fully understood and resolved. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Transformative innovation policy or how to escape peripheral policy paradox in European research peripheral countries

The research peripheral countries (RPCs) are faced with the need to provide transformative change for long term sustainable development with scarce research and development resources which rests upon strengthening science base and the transformative innovation policy focused on societal and environmental challenges. The European Commission's proposal of a new recovery instrument – the Next Generation EU, incorporating the Recovery and Resilience Facility as a key instrument - is focused on green, sustainable, and digital economies, paving the way for a shift from the standard science, technology, and innovation (STI) policy towards transformative innovation policies which foster innovation focused on systematic change and sustainable socio-technical systems.This research seeks to understand the ways in which STI policy can contribute to the economic resilience and sustainable development of research peripheral countries and how STI policies can respond to new innovation policy paradigms, avoiding Europeanisation of STI policies and, ultimately, a peripheral policy paradox. Overcoming of the periphery paradox in STI policies requires unorthodox policy solutions to avoid inefficient replication of policy measures from advanced countries which pertain to science – industry cooperation to foster high tech industries and frontier research.This research proposes a new STI policy approach, based on interactions and interdependencies between standard STI policies for fostering scientific research and science-industry cooperation through transformative innovation policies. This policy allows for an experimental approach to policy-making, finding a way to best suit the national socio-economic context for the gradual replacement of the established socio-technical regime towards sustainable transitions. The fourth component of the new STI policy approach is the concept of the mission-oriented policy, which draws on frontier knowledge and large investments. Both new policy paradigms are discussed in order to highlight the pros and cons of their application in RPCs with regards to research capacities, socio-economic regimes/landscapes, and societal challenges.     

热物理性质测试技术研究现状和发展趋势

本文在对热物理性质研究在热能工程、材料科学、信息科学、航天工程、环境工程、生物科学、微电子技术和计量学等众多科技领域中的重要性进行探讨的基础上，评述了热物理性质测试技术的研究现状和发展趋势。鉴于薄膜材料在微电子器件、集成电路和微电子机械系统等领域中日益广泛的应用，本文还综述了亚微米－纳米尺度薄膜材料热导率和热扩散率的测试新技术。     

The importance of energy in environmental life cycle assessments of packaging materials

By comparing existing studies and additional scenario calculations it was shown that energy data plays a central role in environmental life cycle assessments (LCA) of packaging materials. More attention should be paid to correctly linking environmental data from energy studies to packaging LCA, if possible adapting the data base to the local conditions. In general terms, it was shown that it is possible to calculate energy and packaging systems separately, because of the predominantly static links between the two. Scenario calculations show that the potential for reducing the environmental impact of packaging production by the use of cleaner energies is still considerable.     

Environmental life-cycle comparisons of two polychlorinated biphenyl remediation technologies: incineration and base catalyzed decomposition

Remediation action is critical for the management of polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) contaminated sites. Dozens of remediation technologies developed internationally could be divided in two general categories incineration and non-incineration. In this paper, life cycle assessment (LCA) was carried out to study the environmental impacts of these two kinds of remediation technologies in selected PCB contaminated sites, where Infrared High Temperature Incineration (IHTI) and Base Catalyzed Decomposition (BCD) were selected as representatives of incineration and non-incineration. A combined midpoint/damage approach was adopted by using SimaPro 7.2 and IMPACTA2002+ to assess the human toxicity, ecotoxicity, climate change impact, and resource consumption from the five subsystems of IHTI and BCD technologies, respectively. It was found that the major environmental impacts through the whole lifecycle arose from energy consumption in both IHTI and BCD processes. For IHTI, primary and secondary combustion subsystem contributes more than 50% of midpoint impacts concerning with carcinogens, respiratory inorganics, respiratory organics, terrestrial ecotoxity, terrestrial acidification/eutrophication and global warming. In BCD process, the rotary kiln reactor subsystem presents the highest contribution to almost all the midpoint impacts including global warming, non-renewable energy, non-carcinogens, terrestrial ecotoxity and respiratory inorganics. In the view of midpoint impacts, the characterization values for global warming from IHTI and BCD were about 432.35 and 38.5 kg CO(2)-eq per ton PCB-containing soils, respectively. LCA results showed that the single score of BCD environmental impact was 1468.97 Pt while IHTI's score is 2785.15 Pt, which indicates BCD potentially has a lower environmental impact than IHTI technology in the PCB contaminated soil remediation process.     

Automatic identification in packaging — radio frequency identification in multiway systems

With regard to the increasing environmental awareness all over the world, many companies replace their one‐way packaging systems by reusable systems in order to save energy and resources and to reduce waste. But complex multiway networks entail several problems concerning the availability of returned empties and the control of the flow of materials. In order to guarantee a failure‐free operation of the logistic network at low cost, a complete tracking and tracing of the package based on efficient identification technologies is crucial. Concerning multiway systems, the requirements of a continuous information flow often exceed the capacity of barcode technologies. Radio frequency identification (RFID) technologies can fill this gap by offering the wide range of features necessary for disposition and control. This paper sets out the requirements and benefits connected with the use of RFID technologies using multiway systems that represent new results from current research projects. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Public awareness of the environmental impact and management of carbon dioxide capture,utilization and storage technology: the views of educated people in China

Carbon dioxide capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) is regarded as an important carbon emissions reduction technology response to climate change. Though some full-chain CCUS pilot projects have operated in China, many barriers exist when stepping up to commercial applications, including significant negative perceptions of the environmental risk of CCUS. Therefore, to tailor constructive training or outreach programs for public acceptance of CCUS in China, a large national survey of public perceptions of CCUS technology was conducted in 2013. The questionnaire contained four themes focusing on people with a tertiary education. Six hundred paper–pencil questionnaires were dispatched to 22 universities/enterprises across 19 provinces and 2 municipalities, with a response rate of 95%. The results show that 91.4% of the participants agreed that the earth was experiencing climate change, and 74.3% were interested in low-carbon technologies, but while 22% had heard of CCUS, although with limited knowledge, only 3.6% had a good understanding of the technology. The results from the second part of the questionnaire show that 80.4% of participants believed that CCUS may help to mitigate the impacts of global warming, but the “Not in My Back Yard” (NIMBY) phenomenon was obvious from the location-based objections to transportation and storage processes. In addition, ten listed CCUS environmental management policies received extensive recognition from the participants, and about half of the participants considered that the related government departments should be responsible for environmental management as a first priority. The survey also indicates that the most trusted sources through which the survey participants obtain CCUS information are academic journals and textbooks, television, radio and newspapers, expert lectures and brochures on CCUS demonstration projects. According to the survey of public awareness of the environmental impact and management of CCUS technology in China, CCUS technology rates well for environmental benefits, but high environmental risk perceptions of CCUS lead to a lower acceptance of this carbon emissions reduction technology.     

Assessing the environmental impact of five Pd-based catalytic technologies in removing of nitrates

Emerging technologies involving chemical catalytic processes to remove nitrate from water have proven efficient and cost-effective. However, the environmental impact of noble metals and metals at the nanoscale used in these processes has become a topic of serious concern. The aim of this research was to develop a system for evaluating the environmental impact of technologies associated with Pd-based catalytic denitrification. This research performed life cycle assessment (LCA) based on a detailed analysis of the technologies to examine the environmental burden associated with all stages of the removal process. We then applied analytical hierarchy process (AHP) to determine the weights of various burdens. We implemented the proposed system to determine the relative environmental friendliness of 5 processes used for the removal of nitrate. These five methods use Cu-Pd/TNTs, H₂ + Pd-Cu/TiO₂, Pd-Cu/TiO₂, Pd/ZnO, and Pd-Cu/FeO as catalysts for the removal of nitrate. The results indicate that the use of palladium and the consumption of electricity have a major environmental impact; while the use of Pd-Cu/TiO₂ as catalyst was the most environmentally friendly of the five processes evaluated.     

Eco-redesign of a personal electronic product subject to the energy-using product directive

It cannot be denied that environmental consciousness is becoming important. Ironically, legislation is probably the most satisfactory driver for pushing manufacturers to take environmental concerns into design considerations. In fact, the European Union introduced a new law (directive 2005/32/EC) for regulating the environmental consequences of all energy-using products (EuPs) in August 2007, the scope of which covers all products that rely on energy sources in any form for operation. Design alternatives are required in the product development stage so that environmental concerns can be considered as a decision parameter. In complying with the directive, life-cycle assessment (LCA) is a useful tool to draw conclusions and to compare the performance of alternatives. In this connection, a case study is carried out to assess the environmental impact of a personal electronic product through LCA, subject to the scope of the stated directive. The objectives of this paper are threefold: (i) to report the case in relation to the directive; (ii) to summarise the results of the LCA accordingly; and (iii) to suggest a new conceptual design and to compare the LCA of this new design with the original design.     

Quantum technology: the second quantum revolution

We are currently in the midst of a second quantum revolution. The first quantum revolution gave us new rules that govern physical reality. The second quantum revolution will take these rules and use them to develop new technologies. In this review we discuss the principles upon which quantum technology is based and the tools required to develop it. We discuss a number of examples of research programs that could deliver quantum technologies in coming decades including: quantum information technology, quantum electromechanical systems, coherent quantum electronics, quantum optics and coherent matter technology.     

ICVSS: A New Method for Vulnerability Quantitative Grading

Vulnerability technology is the basic of network security technology, vulnerability quantitative grading methods, such as CVSS, WIVSS, ICVSS, provide a reference to vulnerability management, but the problems of ignoring the risk elevation caused by a group of vulnerabilities and low accuracy of exploitable level evaluation exist in current vulnerability quantitative grading methods. To solve problems above in current network security quantitative evaluation methods, this paper verified the high relevance degree between type and exploitable score of vulnerability, proposed a new vulnerability quantitative grading method ICVSS, ICVSS can explore attack path using continuity level defined by privilege, add vulnerability type to measure indexes of exploitable metrics and use Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) to quantify the influence of vulnerability type on exploitable level. Compared with CVSS and WIVSS, ICVSS is proved that it can discover attack path consist of a sequence of vulnerabilities for network security situation evaluation, and has more accuracy and stability.     

The use of geographic information systems in major accident risk assessment and management

The paper discusses the use of modern information technologies, and in particular geographic information systems (GIS), in the management and control of major accident risk. For this purpose, the regulatory framework of the recent "Seveso II" Directive is briefly described. This asks for more transparent procedures and decision-making, and requires consultation of the public in land-use and off-site emergency planning. Correspondingly, new demands are put to support tools being developed. The main features of tools dealing with hazard sources mapping, risk assessment, risk management, and emergency planning are discussed and examples are given. Moreover, it is argued that, if appropriately designed, their use can enhance the dialog between plant operators, authorities and the public to facilitate a consensus on risk issues. Finally, limitations in the use of these tools and prospects for future developments are discussed.