Integrated Assessment of the Leading Paths to Mitigate CO2 Emissions from the Organic Chemical and Plastics Industry.

The chemical industry is a major and growing source of CO2 emissions. Here, we extend the principal U.S.-based integrated assessment model, GCAM, to include a representation of steam cracking, the dominant process in the organic chemical industry today, and a suite of emerging decarbonization strategies, including catalytic cracking, lower-carbon process heat, and feedstock switching. We find that emerging catalytic production technologies only have a small impact on midcentury emissions mitigation. In contrast, process heat generation could achieve strong mitigation, reducing associated CO2 emissions by ∼76% by 2050. Process heat generation is diversified to include carbon capture and storage (CCS), hydrogen, and electrification. A sensitivity analysis reveals that our results for future net CO2 emissions are most sensitive to the amount of CCS deployed globally. The system as defined cannot reach net-zero emissions if the share of incineration increases as projected without coupling incineration with CCS. Less organic chemicals are produced in a net-zero CO2 future than those in a no-policy scenario. Mitigation of feedstock emissions relies heavily on biogenic carbon used as an alternative feedstock and waste treatment of plastics. The only scenario that delivers net-negative CO2 emissions from the organic chemical sector (by 2070) combines greater use of biogenic feedstocks with a continued reliance on landfilling of waste plastic, versus recycling or incineration, which has trade-offs.

Evaluating the sustainability of ceramic filters for point-of-use drinking water treatment.

This study evaluates the social, economic, and environmental sustainability of ceramic filters impregnated with silver nanoparticles for point-of-use (POU) drinking water treatment in developing countries. The functional unit for this analysis was the amount of water consumed by a typical household over ten years (37,960 L), as delivered by either the POU technology or a centralized water treatment and distribution system. Results indicate that the ceramic filters are 3-6 times more cost-effective than the centralized water system for reduction of waterborne diarrheal illness among the general population and children under five. The ceramic filters also exhibit better environmental performance for four of five evaluated life cycle impacts: energy use, water use, global warming potential, and particulate matter emissions (PM10). For smog formation potential, the centralized system is preferable to the ceramic filter POU technology. This convergence of social, economic, and environmental criteria offers clear indication that the ceramic filter POU technology is a more sustainable choice for drinking water treatment in developing countries than the centralized treatment systems that have been widely adopted in industrialized countries.

Environmental and economic assessment of integrated systems for dairy manure treatment coupled with algae bioenergy production.

Life cycle assessment (LCA) and life cycle costing (LCC) are used to investigate integrated algae bioenergy production and nutrient management on small dairy farms. Four cases are considered: a reference land-application scenario (REF), anaerobic digestion with land-application of liquid digestate (AD), and anaerobic digestion with recycling of liquid digestate to either an open-pond algae cultivation system (OPS) or an algae turf scrubber (ATS). LCA indicates that all three "improved" scenarios (AD, OPS, and ATS) are environmentally favorable compared to REF, exhibiting increases in net energy output up to 854GJ/yr, reductions in net eutrophication potential up to 2700kg PO(4)-eq/yr, and reductions in global warming potential up to 196Mg CO(2)-eq/yr. LCC reveals that the integrated algae systems are much more financially attractive than either AD or REF, whereby net present values (NPV) are as follows: $853,250 for OPS, $790,280 for ATS, -$62,279 for REF, and -$211,126 for AD. However, these results are highly dependent on the sale price for nutrient credits. Comparison of LCA and LCC results indicates that robust nutrient credit markets or other policy tools are required to align financial and environmental preferability of energy production systems and foster widespread adoption of sustainable nutrient management systems.

Comparison of algae cultivation methods for bioenergy production using a combined life cycle assessment and life cycle costing approach.

Algae are an attractive energy source, but important questions still exist about the sustainability of this technology on a large scale. Two particularly important questions concern the method of cultivation and the type of algae to be used. This present study combines elements of life cycle analysis (LCA) and life cycle costing (LCC) to evaluate open pond (OP) systems and horizontal tubular photobioreactors (PBRs) for the cultivation of freshwater (FW) or brackish-to-saline water (BSW) algae. Based on the LCA, OPs have lower energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions than PBRs; e.g., 32% less energy use for construction and operation. According to the LCC, all four systems are currently financially unattractive investments, though OPs are less so than PBRs. BSW species deliver better energy and GHG performance and higher profitability than FW species in both OPs and PBRs. Sensitivity analyses suggest that improvements in critical cultivation parameters (e.g., CO(2) utilization efficiency or algae lipid content), conversion parameters (e.g., anaerobic digestion efficiency), and market factors (e.g., costs of CO(2) and electricity, or sale prices for algae biodiesel) could alter these results.

Environmental impacts of algae-derived biodiesel and bioelectricity for transportation.

Algae are a widely touted source of bioenergy with high yields, appreciable lipid contents, and an ability to be cultivated on marginal land without directly competing with food crops. Nevertheless, recent work has suggested that large-scale deployment of algae bioenergy systems could have unexpectedly high environmental burdens. In this study, a "well-to-wheel" life cycle assessment was undertaken to evaluate algae's potential use as a transportation energy source for passenger vehicles. Four algae conversion pathways resulting in combinations of bioelectricity and biodiesel were assessed for several relevant nutrient procurement scenarios. Results suggest that algae-to-energy systems can be either net energy positive or negative depending on the specific combination of cultivation and conversion processes used. Conversion pathways involving direct combustion for bioelectricity production generally outperformed systems involving anaerobic digestion and biodiesel production, and they were found to generate four and fifteen times as many vehicle kilometers traveled (VKT) per hectare as switchgrass or canola, respectively. Despite this, algae systems exhibited mixed performance for environmental impacts (energy use, water use, and greenhouse gas emissions) on a "per km" basis relative to the benchmark crops. This suggests that both cultivation and conversion processes must be carefully considered to ensure the environmental viability of algae-to-energy processes.

Development and application of a model to estimate wastewater treatment plant prescription pharmaceutical influent loadings and concentrations.

A mass balance model was developed to estimate prescription pharmaceutical loadings to municipal wastewater treatment plants via computation of influent concentrations (C(IN)). Model estimates of C(IN) were compared with published data and found to be accurate within an order of magnitude for some 90% of the drugs evaluated. The model was then used to rank prescription drugs on a per-capita mass loading basis for comparison with current research efforts and coupled with two EPISuite programs to generate estimates for environmental exposure. Results showed marked discrepancies between prescription numbers, loadings, exposures, and research conducted, as highlighted by the drug metformin, with the largest projected loading to treatment plants (>28 g per 1,000 people/day), yet only ranking 12th in terms of prescription numbers and no environmental research articles.