Life cycle of an ideal green solvent from cradle to grave for sustainability studies of green solvents.

Haber-Bosch (HB) process, the main method for ammonia (NH₃) production, contributes to near 2% of the global carbon emissions because the hydrogen input is obtained from fossil sources. NH₃ production is concentrated in a few countries, adding emissions due to global distribution. Distributed plants next to farmers and fed by renewable energy can reduce these impacts, as well as NH₃ storage, shortage risks, and price volatility. Distributed plants cannot reach low NH₃ production costs as centralised plants, but they can be promoted by the environmental benefits of its products lifecycles. Therefore, life cycle assessments of NH₃ production pathways and specific modelling for NH₃ transport in Australia were performed, from cradle-to-site, to identify the influence of storage, transport, and energy sources in their environmental profiles. The carbon footprint of centralised production was up to 2.96 kg.CO_2-eq/kg.NH₃, from which 29.3% corresponded to transport. Local production demonstrated substantial avoided transport impacts and that CO_2-eq can reach reductions over 100% when including co-product credits such as oxygen and carbon black. Local plants using electrolysers to supply mini-HB loops obtained rates of 0.12, -0.52, and -1.57 kg.CO_2-eq/kg.NH₃ using electricity from solar, wind, and biogas (other than manure) sources, respectively. The alternative using high temperature plasma reactor instead of electrolyser obtained its best rate of -0.65 kg.CO_2-eq/kg using biogas different from manure. At farm electrolyser-based plants using novel non-thermal plasma reactors, considering potential energy yields and simplified NH₃ separation technology, could reach a rate of -1.07 kg.CO_2-eq/kg.NH_3, using solar energy. Among the assessed pathways, the most notable impact was on freshwater eutrophication in the electrolyser-based plants generating reductions up to 290%, due to oxygen credits. Despite these results, the use of solar energy raises concerns on land use and terrestrial ecotoxicity due to the area needed for solar farms and the manufacture of their components.

Analysis of the CO production cost from CO ₂ via gliding arc plasma reactors with embedded carbon beds versus low-temperature electrolysers.

In the past 50 years, higher education institutions worldwide have progressively implemented sustainability policies focused on improving their environmental indicators and institutional image. This trend also occurs in Colombia, both in private and public institutions. One of the issues associated with sustainability that has experienced increasing interest by these entities is Climate Change, which is reflected in an increasing number of inventories of Greenhouse Gases (GHG) of an organizational nature. Following this trend, the Technological University of Pereira (UTP), as a state higher education institution, quantified its organizational carbon footprint of 2017. Through the application of the GHG Protocol methodology, direct emissions (Scope 1), indirect emissions associated with electricity (Scope 2) and other indirect GHG emissions (Scope 3) were established. In total, in 2017 UTP emitted 8969 t CO₂-eq, of which 97% were scope 3 emissions, mainly due to the daily mobility of students and officials, and the construction of infrastructure. Likewise, in 2017 each member of the university community emitted 0.4 t CO₂-eq. Compared to other universities in the rest of the world, the carbon footprint per person at the UTP is low, among other reasons, because the campus does not generate electricity or use heating and furthermore, in terms of proximity, UTP students and employees residences in relation to the campus are close, which allows that the daily commuting is mostly short. Additionally, the impact on total emissions of the years 2017 and 2018 of three strategies in favor of reducing the carbon footprint of UTP based on better management of water, electricity and the mobility of students and teachers was evaluated. If these strategies had been implemented in both years, the carbon footprint would have been decreased 3.1% on average in a conservative scenario and 4.8% on average on an optimistic scenario.