Michele Rosano

A life cycle greenhouse gas assessment of remanufactured refrigeration and air conditioning compressors

Remanufacturing can importantly reduce the resource intensity and increase the eco-efficiency of product systems by utilising recovered end of life (EOL) parts. A life cycle assessment (LCA) has been carried out to determine the greenhouse gas emissions from the production of a remanufactured compressor vs. a new original equipment manufacturer (OEM) compressor. The remanufacturing consisted of five stages: disassembling, cleaning and washing (C&W), machining, reassembling, and testing. The analysis determined that remanufactured compressors produce about 89% to 93% less greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions than those associated with a new (OEM) compressor and also 50% cheaper than a new (OEM) compressor. The analysis also confirmed that additional reuse and less replacement of parts with new parts can further reduce the overall GHG emissions of remanufactured compressors. The research concludes that remanufacturing can be regarded as a sustainable manufacturing operation that helps attain economic, environmental and social pillars of sustainability.

Application of a life cycle assessment to compare environmental performance in coal mine tailings management

This study compares coal mine tailings management strategies using life cycle assessment (LCA) and land-use area metrics methods. Hybrid methods (the Australian indicator set and the ReCiPe method) were used to assess the environmental impacts of tailings management strategies. Several strategies were considered: belt filter press (OPT 1), tailings paste (OPT 2), thickened tailings (OPT 3), and variations of OPT 1 using combinations of technology improvement and renewable energy sources (OPT 1A-D). Electrical energy was found to contribute more than 90% of the environmental impacts. The magnitude of land-use impacts associated with OPT 3 (thickened tailings) were 2.3 and 1.55 times higher than OPT 1 (tailings cake) and OPT 2 (tailings paste) respectively, while OPT 1B (tailings belt filter press with technology improvement and solar energy) and 1D (tailings belt press filter with technology improvement and wind energy) had the lowest ratio of environmental impact to land-use. Further analysis of an economic cost model and reuse opportunities is required to aid decision making on sustainable tailings management and industrial symbiosis.

Failure analysis using acoustic and energy emission assessment of fibre reinforced polymer material performance under severe conditions

Laboratory compressive tests and acoustic emission analysis have been used to investigate the failure of pultruded fibre reinforced polymer materials after they have been subjected to temperature stress and compressive loading. The acoustic emission approach is then compared with the experimental values of energy released by each sample through the corresponded load-displacement curve. Samples subjected to severe thermal conditions showed more evidence of brittle failure mechanism. This analysis has been conducted in order to confirm the potential capacity of fibre reinforced polymer materials, known currently for their strength and lightweight but often ‘brittle’ physical characteristics, to perform under exaggerated conditions of temperature and compressive stress.

De-constructing the sustainability challenge for engineering education: an industrial ecology approach

Engineering for sustainable development (ESD) involves engineering decision making that provides for todays production and consumption without endangering the natural resource base on which all of life ultimately depends. Curtin Universitys Faculty of Engineering in Perth, Western Australia, has long held the belief that engineering education holds one of the main keys to improving sustainable development outcomes across the modern world and to this end has invested in the development of outreach programmes, undergraduate and post-graduate education and the promotion of education leadership in engineering education for sustainable development. These programmes have been both facilitated and developed by the Sustainable Engineering Group in the School of Civil and Mechanical Engineering at Curtin University. De-constructing the sustainable engineering education challenge has involved programmes that start from the first interface with potential young engineers in secondary high schools and continues through to post-graduate education for practicing engineers.

Reducing energy demand in production environment requiring refrigeration—A localized climatization approach

Food and pharmaceutical refrigeration areas place significant demands on air temperature and air humidity control. This leads to high energy requirements on the HVAC system. In the majority of cases, the entire production hall is “over conditioned” with fresh air. However, very often the products are located in a small part of the overall production area (hall). From an energy efficiency and sustainability point of view, it makes sense to only air condition that area in which the products require refrigerated temperature control. One approach to reduce the refrigeration energy demand is to house the product in localized product cooling systems. In this study, localized product cooling systems are analyzed in order to identify the saving potentials associated with a localized HVAC refrigeration system. Experimental systems were built and evaluated. The simulation analysis highlighted that smaller localized refrigeration housing can reduce total energy demand by up to 65%.

Carbon footprint assessment of Western Australian LNG production and export to the Chinese market

In reviewing the carbon footprint of the production and transportation of 1m3 of LNG to China, this life cycle assessment (LCA) has confirmed that the production and liquefaction stage generates the most GHG emissions (45.4%) followed by the natural gas exploration and separation stage (39%) and the exportation and transportation stage (15.7%). The utilisation of wind power energy as a replacement of gas fired electricity generation could possibly reduce the ‘energy consumption’ related GHG emissions of LNG production by some 36–51%. Similarly, the utilisation of carbon capture and storage to sequester the GHG emitted during electricity production could potentially reduce ‘energy consumption’ related GHG emissions by 33–45%. This LCA will assist exporters, manufacturers, and suppliers in the LNG supply chain with enhanced environmental supply chain management and the management of any future carbon trading pressures on LNG markets.

Review of life cycle assessment research for the Australian grain industries

This paper seeks to review the existing, published life-cycle assessment (LCA) analyses of the grain supply chain in Australia that have identified ‘hot spots’ requiring environmental improvement. This article also discusses the application of cleaner production strategies for reducing life-cycle ecological footprints, and achieving further economic and environmental benefits in the grain supply chain. In conclusion, some recommendations are made to overcome some existing drawbacks for LCA grain research.

Review of Tools for Sustainability Assessment of Renewable Energy Technologies for Remote Area Power Supply

This review discusses the tools used in the sustainability assessment of renewable energy technologies in remote area power supply systems. A comprehensive keyword search was conducted to identify widely used tools in assessing the three pillars of sustainability (economics, environmental and social). Results found that environmental life cycle assessment (ELCA), life cycle costing (LCC), social life cycle assessment (SLCA), triple bottom line (TBL) approach and eco-efficiency analysis (EEA) were commonly used worldwide to assess the environmental, economic and social implications of renewable energy technologies. Eco-efficiency analysis is recommended to be applied in the sustainability assessment of power generating technologies for remote area power supply. This tool does not only assess the economic and environmental implication of existing technologies but also assists in the implementation of improvement opportunities for a better eco-efficiency performance.

Eco-efficiency analysis for remote area power supply selection in Western Australia

Remote area power supply (RAPS) systems in Western Australia account for more than 56% of total off-grid electricity supply in Australia and utilise carbon emission intensive diesel and gas generating technologies for power supply. Most of these RAPS systems are run by environmentally unfriendly conventional fuel due to economic reasons. An eco-efficiency analysis (EEA) framework was therefore developed to explore the environmental and economic efficiency of the current diesel RAPS systems in Western Australia. ISO 14040:2006 for Life Cycle Assessment and AS/NZS 4536:1000 (R2014) for Life Cycle Costing have been used to estimate the associated environmental impacts and costs of RAPS systems in conducting an EEA. The results show that the integration of solar photovoltaic panels and an energy storage system into existing diesel generating units for power supply could improve the eco-efficiency of the existing system. It was found that a 4% increase in total life cycle costs with the use of a hybrid system could potentially decrease the overall environmental impacts by 16%.

Localized Climatisation of Perishable Products: Solutions for Increasing Energy Efficiency

Many industries have significant requirements regarding temperature control, air humidity and air pollution which must be strictly adhered to avoid bacterial formation and contamination. High refrigeration specifications are only required in certain areas. However, these specifications are often applied across the whole production hall which results in unnecessarily high energy demand and usage. A more energy efficient approach is the localized cooling of the product, which conditions the direct environment of the product only. This leads to the consideration of separating or localizing the products specifically requiring refrigeration in the production hall. In this paper, localized product cooling systems are analyzed in order to identify the savings potential associated with a localized refrigeration system. The study shows the energy savings potential for a manufacturing company located in three different locations: in Germany, Canada and the USA.Copyright