Eco-efficiency Research Papers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Reducing environmental impacts and getting economic benefits, based on the waste utilization, and on the reduction of both energy consumption and organic load, was the driver of the implementation of cleaner production assessment in a... more

Reducing environmental impacts and getting economic benefits, based on the waste utilization, and on the reduction of both energy consumption and organic load, was the driver of the implementation of cleaner production assessment in a poultry industry and its related processes. The main objective of this study is to examine the feasibility of using poultry litter as a source of energy to cover the heating demand of Poultry Company’s slaughterhouse. Poultry litter enters the cooking stage to produce the fat-oil for the fuel burning stage. The results showed that the critical price of poultry litter is 46.7 JOD per ton, below which it becomes feasible to utilize this waste as a source of energy. However, the daily monetary saving was found to be strongly affected by the prices of both poultry litter and diesel. Another revenue can be generated from the fertilizer value of the poultry waste-to-energy ash. However, this depends on several technical and market factors that need further c...

Natural resources are limited. The circular economy is one of several different concepts that has been useful in the quest to understand how resources can be used most efficiently. It proposes that closing loops and repeatedly using... more

Natural resources are limited. The circular economy is one of several different concepts that has been useful in the quest to understand how resources can be used most efficiently. It proposes that closing loops and repeatedly using resources has the potential to procure maximum eco-efficiency. To track society's progress towards a circular economy, indicators and measures are needed. The majority of these aim to capture the circularity of resource flows, yet fail to simultaneously consider the length of time for which a resource is in use. More recently, a longevity indicator has been proposed, but similarly, it fails to take into account how many times a resource is used. Both longevity and circularity are needed for sustainable resource use, but to date, no measure that combines both approaches is in use. Based on existing measures we develop and further develop indicators for both circularity and longevity that focus on the contribution that organisations and other resource users make to the sustainability of resource use. By combining both indicators we enhance their explanatory power.

In its present form, tourism is dependent on the availability of oil and is comparatively oil-intensive. While forecasts for future tourism growth are optimistic, there is also increasing evidence about the imminence of a peak in oil... more

In its present form, tourism is dependent on the availability of oil and is comparatively oil-intensive. While forecasts for future tourism growth are optimistic, there is also increasing evidence about the imminence of a peak in oil production and the economic effects that this would cause. Globally and on a destination level it will be necessary to consider how a transition towards fossil-fuel free economies might look like for tourism.It is therefore timely and prudent for the tourism sector to consider its current oil requirements and derive indicators for monitoring its oil consumption. In particular, destinations need indicators of the amount of oil consumed by the various markets from which they receive visitors. New Zealand is used as an example for assessing the oil-intensity of its Top 10 countries of origin based on the 10 indicators. Overall, the least exposed markets for New Zealand with respect to oil are Australia, China, Singapore, and Taiwan, although a more detailed analysis would be required for markets that display very heterogeneous travel behaviour. Among the indicators, eco-efficiency is particularly important as it allows comparison of resource inputs with economic outputs.

A process improvement in a tablet manufacturing process within a pharmaceutical industry was carried out based on an eco-efficiency approach. As it is one of the most energy consuming processes in the production line, the tablet... more

A process improvement in a tablet manufacturing process within a pharmaceutical industry was carried out based on an eco-efficiency approach. As it is one of the most energy consuming processes in the production line, the tablet manufacturing process was considered. It has the highest production volume with a complicated and long manufacturing product life cycle. Data were collected on energy inputs and emissions data for the stages of powder direct mixing, particle size reduction, and tableting. A straightforward approach was then used to analyze environmental impacts in terms of GHG emissions. Non-added value steps were removed from the product life cycle process, which has led to significant time and cost savings, as well as to a reduction in the emission. Annual economic savings have been achieved, a time reduction of approximately 71% was attained, and the reduction in GHG emissions and energy cost were 73.2%. The g CO 2 eq per tablet reduction has been calculated within the process improvement to be 2.06 g CO 2 eq per tablet instead of 7.71 g CO 2 eq per tablet.

The information has been analytically concentrated for an aggravation mode by reduction of modelled relations to dominant positive feedback loops; the doomsday of capitalist reproduction because of neglect of the scientific foundations of... more

The information has been analytically concentrated for an aggravation mode by reduction of modelled relations to dominant positive feedback loops; the doomsday of capitalist reproduction because of neglect of the scientific foundations of environmental management is determined by initial magnitudes of only two variables - the resource intensity of net output and the ratio of net output to proved reserves in the model economy. The magnitudes of remaining parameters (relating, first, to technical progress, distribution shares of labour compensation, rent, and profit in the net product, second, to the rate of growth of labor force and the rate of investment in fixed capital) affect only the nuances of a transition regime to a collapse.

The goal of this study is to create a novel eco-exergoenvironmental toxicity index to identify the most sustainable irrigation system among surface irrigation and drip irrigation for sunflower production in Kurdistan, Iran. This research... more

The goal of this study is to create a novel eco-exergoenvironmental toxicity index to identify the most sustainable irrigation system among surface irrigation and drip irrigation for sunflower production in Kurdistan, Iran. This research emphasizes on choosing a sustainable irrigation agricultural system with an invented index, which considers all aspects. For this purpose, life cycle assessment (USEtox 2.0) is applied for evaluating toxicity factors and results show that the environmental situation of drip irrigation is better than that of surface irrigation. Exergy analysis results reveal that total exergy demands are 287,421 and 211,458 Megajoule per ten ton of sunflower for surface irrigation and drip irrigation scenarios, respectively. Nitrogen has the highest share (more than 50%) in all factors and exergy categories. Eco-efficiency of all toxicity factors of drip irrigation (with net profit 7417.86)ismorethanthoseofsurfaceirrigation(withnetprofit7417.86) is more than those of surface irrigation (with net profit 7417.86)ismorethanthoseofsurfaceirrigation(withnetprofit6614.35). The analytic hierarchy process analysis indicates that human toxicity, cancer has the first rank of priority based on expert choices. Based on the novel index results, sustainable rates are 1.690 and 1.169 for surface irrigation and drip irrigation, respectively. Thus, drip irrigation is an eco-exergoenvironmental-friendly scenario in comparison to surface irrigation.

This paper deals with eco issues in bulk materials handling in ports. Solid, free-flowing materials are said to be in bulk. Bulk materials han-dling is very difficult, because it incorporates all the features of liquids, gasses and mass... more

This paper deals with eco issues in bulk materials handling in ports. Solid, free-flowing materials are said to be in bulk. Bulk materials han-dling is very difficult, because it incorporates all the features of liquids, gasses and mass solids. Energy efficiency, dust emissions in nearby en-vironment, dust explosions, jamming, noise, handling of hazardous ma-terials and protection of materials from contamination

The mining industry faces increasing economic, environmental and social challenges, as easier deposits deplete and ores become more difficult to mine and process; head grades decline; projects migrate to increasingly remote and difficult... more

The mining industry faces increasing economic, environmental and social challenges, as easier deposits deplete and ores become more difficult to mine and process; head grades decline; projects migrate to increasingly remote and difficult geographies; and the industry faces more stringent environmental and social standards. While these factors increase costs and risks, they also present opportunities for a more integrated approach to mining, processing, materials handling and waste management. Two key areas of risk are in tailings and water management. As mining and processing tonnage rates continue to increase, the disturbance footprints, water and energy consumption and scale of tailings storage facilities also rise. These factors can be mitigated by more selective mining, ore sorting and pre-concentration, and more intensive tailings dewatering. Such alternatives must be considered in conjunction with the selection of mining method, metallurgical flowsheets, major equipment selection, and key process design criteria. For example, increasing the grind size of a concentrator reduces energy consumption and eases tailings dewatering, but may cause challenges with metal recovery. Emerging technologies will be reviewed, and economic and environmental trade-offs for eco-efficient alternatives will be presented for metal sulfide mines.

Viewing slacks as one possible source of inefficiency, and that inputs have differential importance in the production process, this paper develops, based on the directional Russell measure of inefficiency, the non-radial Luenberger... more

Viewing slacks as one possible source of inefficiency, and that inputs have differential importance in the production process, this paper develops, based on the directional Russell measure of inefficiency, the non-radial Luenberger indicator. This indicator is then shown as the sum of the individual input-specific Luenberger indicators. The Luenberger indicator and its various input-specific indicators are also then shown as the composite measure of efficiency change and technical change. This decomposition enables the researcher to empirically examine the contributions of each factor input towards the productivity change and its components--efficiency change and technical change. Our proposed decomposition scheme is then empirically illustrated to analyze the eco-productivity performance behavior of the 22 OECD countries during the period 1995-2004. Our results indicate that first, the productivity change estimates yielded from the non-radial Luenberger indicator are different from those yielded from its radial counterpart, when slacks are present; second, most of these countries are found experiencing productivity growth due to technical progress alone; and finally, as regards the order of input-specific contributions towards productivity growth, capital contributes the most, followed by savings in emissions and labor, respectively.

This paper describes the improvement of the setup process of a mechanical press machine in the metal-mechanic area of an elevators company. The work results from a master thesis project conducted during a period of five months. The... more

This paper describes the improvement of the setup process of a mechanical press machine in the metal-mechanic area of an elevators company. The work results from a master thesis project conducted during a period of five months. The Single-Minute Exchange of Die (SMED) methodology and other Lean Production tools (5S, Visual Management and Standard Work) were applied to reduce the setup times observed at the beginning of the project. With the developed solutions it was possible to reduce setup times, work-in-process (WIP) and distances travelled by operators. Additionally, the setup operations were standardized and consequently the process has become more fast and intuitive for the operators. These improvements allowed the reduction of energy and materials consumption and, consequently, a decrease on the Greenhouse Gases’ emissions.

Background, aim, and scope The synergistic use of life cycle assessment (LCA) and data envelopment analysis (DEA) is proposed as a new methodological approach to link environmental and socioeconomic assessments of fisheries. Therefore,... more

Background, aim, and scope The synergistic use of life cycle assessment (LCA) and data envelopment analysis (DEA) is proposed as a new methodological approach to link environmental and socioeconomic assessments of fisheries. Therefore, the goal is to combine LCA and DEA in order to increase the assessment ability of both tools when applied to these fisheries. Specifically, the joint inclusion of

This study investigates the cradle to cradle philosophy, which is a paradigm changing innovative platform for achieving positive ecological impacts in the built environment. With focus on business sites, a preliminary survey is conducted... more

This study investigates the cradle to cradle philosophy, which is a paradigm changing innovative platform for achieving positive ecological impacts in the built environment. With focus on business sites, a preliminary survey is conducted to interrogate tenant stakeholders’ preferences towards cradle to cradle attributes. Training, employment and use of local skills (social diversity) as well as realisation of highly flexible and easily adaptable spaces (conceptual diversity) were revealed as the most important attributes whilst integration of biodiversity was of least importance. This suggests therefore that business needs drive their preferences and as such must be reflected in C2C implementation strategies.