Junbeum Kim

Replacing gasoline with corn ethanol results in significant environmental problem-shifting.

Previous studies on the life-cycle environmental impacts of corn ethanol and gasoline focused almost exclusively on energy balance and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and largely overlooked the influence of regional differences in agricultural practices. This study compares the environmental impact of gasoline and E85 taking into consideration 12 different environmental impacts and regional differences among 19 corn-growing states. Results show that E85 does not outperform gasoline when a wide spectrum of impacts is considered. If the impacts are aggregated using weights developed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), overall, E85 generates approximately 6% to 108% (23% on average) greater impact compared with gasoline, depending on where corn is produced, primarily because corn production induces significant eutrophication impacts and requires intensive irrigation. If GHG emissions from the indirect land use changes are considered, the differences increase to between 16% and 118% (33% on average). Our study indicates that replacing gasoline with corn ethanol may only result in shifting the net environmental impacts primarily toward increased eutrophication and greater water scarcity. These results suggest that the environmental criteria used in the Energy Independence and Security Act (EISA) be re-evaluated to include additional categories of environmental impact beyond GHG emissions.

Sustainable manufacturing: a case study of the forklift painting process

Life cycle assessment (LCA) and design for environment (DFE) methods were applied to assess opportunities for reducing the environmental impacts of forklift manufacturing unit processes and to redesign those unit processes to increase overall sustainability. The unit processes of forklift manufacture generating the most environmental emissions were identified by applying LCA methodology. The results show that eco-toxicity and human toxicity were the most significant impacts of the forklift manufacturing process overall. Also, within the manufacturing unit processes, cutting, welding and painting had the highest impact values. In order to minimise environmental impacts, a new paint was created with increased solid content over the existing solvent paint used in the painting process. In addition, by applying DFE methodology and the high solid paint, overcoat and drying steps were eliminated from the forklift painting process. As a result, the environmental index of a follow-up LCA showed that environmental impacts could be reduced by 20%, while volatile organic compound (VOC) and paint usage could be decreased by 30% and 20%, respectively.

Modeling cumulative effects in life cycle assessment: The case of fertilizer in wheat production contributing to the global warming potential

This paper aims at presenting a dynamic indicator for life cycle assessment (LCA) measuring cumulative impacts over time of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from fertilizers used for wheat cultivation and production. Our approach offers a dynamic indicator of global warming potential (GWP), one of the most used indicator of environmental impacts (e.g. in the Kyoto Protocol). For a case study, the wheat production in France was selected and considered by using data from official sources about fertilizer consumption and production of wheat. We propose to assess GWP environmental impact based on LCA method. The system boundary is limited to the fertilizer production for 1 ton of wheat produced (functional unit) from 1910 to 2010. As applied to wheat production in France, traditional LCA shows a maximum GWP impact of 500 kg CO2-eq for 1 ton of wheat production, whereas the GWP impact of wheat production over time with our approach to dynamic LCA and its cumulative effects increases to 18,000 kg CO2-eq for 1 ton of wheat production. In this paper, only one substance and one impact assessment indicator are presented. However, the methodology can be generalized and improved by using different substances and indicators.

Design and assessment of a sustainable networked system in the U.S.; Case study of book delivery system

In this paper, we attempted to design and assess a sustainable networked delivery (SND) system, which can achieve significant reductions of energy consumption and environmental emissions of critical local pollutants and greenhouse gases due to growing local transportation in urban areas. SND system is a combination of e-commerce and centralized pickup point (PP), with the PP being a location that the consumer will already be visiting regularly. Transportation energy consumption and concomitant emissions in the three delivery systems (traditional networked delivery (TND) system, e-commerce networked delivery (END) system, and sustainable networked delivery (SND)) were compared. Our research results show that the SND system has a lot of possibilities to save local transportation energy consumption and reduce environmental emissions in delivery system.

Methodology for recycling potential evaluation criterion of waste home appliances considering environmental and economic factor

An evaluation method to assess recycling potential, considering both the environmental and economic aspects, was suggested for the material recovered from waste home appliances. The life cycle assessment (LCA) method was applied to obtain the environmental score (S/sub Env/), and the actual value and a static economic model was used to obtain the economic score (S/sub Eco/). The S/sub Env/ of recycled glass and circuit board showed the highest value (11.97), followed by copper (9.37), iron (6.77), and plastic (3.67). The S/sub Eco/ of recycled copper showed the highest value (6.97), followed by aluminum (5.23), iron (5.15), plastic (4.82), and glass and circuit board (3.50). The recycling potentials for the recyclable materials were calculated by weighting S/sub Env/ and S/sub Eco/ with the factors obtained from the analytical hierarchy process (AHP) method. As a result, the recycling potential of copper was the highest, followed by iron, glass, circuit board, and aluminum. This calculated data and methodology would provide a useful data for decision makers and product designers in design for environment (DfE).

E-waste management and resources recovery in France

There are various issues of concern regarding electronic waste management, such as the toxicity of hazardous materials and the collection, recycling and recovery of useful resources. To understand the fate of electronic waste after collection and recycling, a products and materials flow analysis should be performed. This is a critical need, as material resources are becoming increasingly scarce and recycling may be able to provide secondary sources for new materials in the future. In this study, we investigate electronic waste systems, specifically the resource recovery or recycling aspects, as well as mapping electronic waste flows based on collection data in France. Approximately 1,588,453 t of new electrical and electronic equipment were sold in the French market in 2010. Of this amount, 430,000 t of electronic waste were collected, with the remaining 1,128,444 t remaining in stock. Furthermore, the total recycled amounts were 354,106 t and 11,396 t, respectively. The main electronic waste materials were ferrous metals (37%), plastic (22%), aluminium (12%), copper (11%) and glass (7%). This study will contribute to developing sustainable electronic waste and resource recycling systems in France.

Integration of life cycle assessment and regional emission information in agricultural systems

BACKGROUND Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a compilation and evaluation of the input energy and materials, output emissions and the potential environmental impacts of a product, service or system throughout its life cycle. While methodological issues of LCA are still being developed, much research is being conducted worldwide in order to improve them. One of the important advances in LCA is a regionalised LCA, i.e. the development of regionalised databases, inventories, and impact assessment methods and models. RESULTS Regional emission information (REI) was developed and integrated with the characterisation results in LCA of an agricultural product in the study area. Comparison of outcomes obtained with LCA characterisation results that did not include REI shows that the characterisation results taking REI into account are much higher as regards human toxicity, from 0.02% to 0.18%, freshwater ecotoxicity from 89% to 99% and terrestrial ecotoxicity from 8.006% to 26.177%. CONCLUSION Results of current LCA studies on agricultural products and systems that do not include REI are under-estimating the life cycle environmental impact. For the LCA of agricultural products and systems, the REI as well as regionalised life cycle inventory data should be developed and integrated into the current LCA approach.

Proposal for an e-waste management system for the United States

Quantities of end-of-life electronics (or e-waste) around the world keep growing. More than 1.36 million metric tons of e-waste were discarded in the U.S. in 2005, mainly in landfills, and e-waste is projected to grow in future years. This paper explores issues relating to planning future e-waste regulation and management systems in the U.S. It begins by reviewing the existing U.S. recycling systems to establish the importance of developing public responses. The paper then discusses what specific conditions are expected to influence the acceptability and implementation domestically. A key consideration is the cultural imperative in the U.S. for market-driven solutions that enable competition. Given this context, a solution is proposed that is designed to ensure a proper end-of-life management while at the same time establishing a competitive market for reuse and recycling services. The solution, termed e-market for returned deposit, begins with a deposit paid by consumers to sellers at the time of purchase, electronically registered and tracked via a radio-frequency identification device (RFID) placed on the product. At end-of-life, consumers consult an Internet-enabled market in which firms compete to receive the deposit by offering consumers variable degrees of return on the deposit. After collection of the computer by the selected firm, the cyberinfrastructure utilizes the RFID to transfer the deposit to the winning firm when recycled. If the firm chooses to refurbish or resell the computer in lieu of recycling, the transfer is deferred until true end-of-life processing.

Sustainability review of the international reverse chain for reuse and recycling of computers

We discuss an emerging issue that has as yet received scant attention: the sustainable management of international reverse supply chains. A reverse supply chain is the network of activities involving reuse, recycling and final disposal that follow after a consumer is finished with a product. International flows of products for reuse and materials for recycling are significant and increasing. We review the sustainability issues associated the international reverse supply chain for personal computers. In terms of environment impacts, the existing literature suggests that the risk of leachage of toxic materials from sanitary landfills is low. A set of scientific work analyzing informal recycling in China confirms serious emissions and exposures. From a social perspective, an international used market plays a role, though as yet poorly characterized, in increasing availability of information technology hardware to lower income groups. Reuse and recycling activities constitute an economic of significant scale and its associated employment should be considered as a factor in societal decisions pertaining to the reverse supply chain.

E-Market for e-waste

In the U.S., e-waste could be the fastest growing component of the municipal solid waste. This trend is likely to continue given the rapid rate of technological progress, increased adoption and subsequent decreasing life spans of electronic products. This poster proposes the e-market for returned deposit system as an option for future e-waste management system in the U.S.