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The environmental impacts of producing biofuels from algae include not only climate change but also other impacts. Throughout the whole life cycle, neglecting any significant impacts and shifting any environmental burdens from one impact to another must be avoided. This chapter presents life cycle assessment as a tool for the purpose and existing literature on biofuels produced from algae, relevant LCA, and biofuel production facilities. It indicates that a far greater evidence base, methodological harmonization, and greater use of industrial data are required to allow LCA to become a truly valuable tool for the development of algae biofuels.
Tom Bradley; Janie Ling-Chin; Daniel Maga; Lais Galileu Speranza; Anthony Paul Roskilly. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of Algae Biofuels. Reference Module in Earth Systems and Environmental Sciences 2021, 1 .
AMA StyleTom Bradley, Janie Ling-Chin, Daniel Maga, Lais Galileu Speranza, Anthony Paul Roskilly. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of Algae Biofuels. Reference Module in Earth Systems and Environmental Sciences. 2021; ():1.
Chicago/Turabian StyleTom Bradley; Janie Ling-Chin; Daniel Maga; Lais Galileu Speranza; Anthony Paul Roskilly. 2021. "Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of Algae Biofuels." Reference Module in Earth Systems and Environmental Sciences , no. : 1.
Sustaining value after the end-of-life to improve products’ circularity and sustainability has attracted an increasing number of industrial actors, policymakers, and researchers. Medical products are considered to have great remanufacturing potential because they are often designated as single-use products and consist of various complex materials that cannot be reused and are not significant in municipal recycling infrastructure. The remanufacturing of electrophysiology catheters is a well-established process guaranteeing equivalent quality compared to virgin-produced catheters. In order to measure if using a remanufactured product is environmentally beneficial compared to using a virgin product, life cycle assessment (LCA) is often used. However, focusing on one life cycle to inform on the environmental-beneficial use fails to guide policymakers from a system perspective. This study analyzes the environmental consequences of electrophysiology catheters considering two modeling perspectives, the implementation of LCA, including a cut-off approach and combining LCA and a circularity indicator measuring multiple life cycles. Investigating the LCA results of using a remanufactured as an alternative to a newly-manufactured catheter shows that the global warming impact is reduced by 50.4% and the abiotic resource use by 28.8%. The findings from the system perspective suggest that the environmental savings increase with increasing collection rates of catheters.
Anna Schulte; Daniel Maga; Nils Thonemann. Combining Life Cycle Assessment and Circularity Assessment to Analyze Environmental Impacts of the Medical Remanufacturing of Electrophysiology Catheters. Sustainability 2021, 13, 898 .
AMA StyleAnna Schulte, Daniel Maga, Nils Thonemann. Combining Life Cycle Assessment and Circularity Assessment to Analyze Environmental Impacts of the Medical Remanufacturing of Electrophysiology Catheters. Sustainability. 2021; 13 (2):898.
Chicago/Turabian StyleAnna Schulte; Daniel Maga; Nils Thonemann. 2021. "Combining Life Cycle Assessment and Circularity Assessment to Analyze Environmental Impacts of the Medical Remanufacturing of Electrophysiology Catheters." Sustainability 13, no. 2: 898.
Daniel Maga; Nils Thonemann; Philip Strothmann; Guido Sonnemann. How to account for plastic emissions in life cycle inventory analysis? Resources, Conservation and Recycling 2020, 168, 105331 .
AMA StyleDaniel Maga, Nils Thonemann, Philip Strothmann, Guido Sonnemann. How to account for plastic emissions in life cycle inventory analysis? Resources, Conservation and Recycling. 2020; 168 ():105331.
Chicago/Turabian StyleDaniel Maga; Nils Thonemann; Philip Strothmann; Guido Sonnemann. 2020. "How to account for plastic emissions in life cycle inventory analysis?" Resources, Conservation and Recycling 168, no. : 105331.
Emerging technologies are expected to contribute to environmental sustainable development. However, throughout the development of novel technologies, it is unknown whether emerging technologies can lead to reduced environmental impacts compared to a potentially displaced mature technology. Additionally, process steps suspected to be environmental hotspots can be improved by process engineers early in the development of the emerging technology. In order to determine the environmental impacts of emerging technologies at an early stage of development, prospective life cycle assessment (LCA) should be performed. However, consistency in prospective LCA methodology is lacking. Therefore, this article develops a framework for a prospective LCA in order to overcome the methodological inconsistencies regarding prospective LCAs. The methodological framework was developed using literature on prospective LCAs of emerging technologies, and therefore, a literature review on prospective LCAs was conducted. We found 44 case studies, four review papers, and 17 papers on methodological guidance. Three main challenges for conducting prospective LCAs are identified: Comparability, data, and uncertainty challenges. The issues in defining the aim, functionality, and system boundaries of the prospective LCAs, as well as problems with specifying LCIA methodologies, comprise the comparability challenge. Data availability, quality, and scaling are issues within the data challenge. Finally, uncertainty exists as an overarching challenge when applying a prospective LCA. These three challenges are especially crucial for the prospective assessment of emerging technologies. However, this review also shows that within the methodological papers and case studies, several approaches exist to tackle these challenges. These approaches were systematically summarized within a framework to give guidance on how to overcome the issues when conducting prospective LCAs of emerging technologies. Accordingly, this framework is useful for LCA practitioners who are analyzing early-stage technologies. Nevertheless, further research is needed to develop appropriate scale-up schemes and to include uncertainty analyses for a more in-depth interpretation of results.
Nils Thonemann; Anna Schulte; Daniel Maga. How to Conduct Prospective Life Cycle Assessment for Emerging Technologies? A Systematic Review and Methodological Guidance. Sustainability 2020, 12, 1192 .
AMA StyleNils Thonemann, Anna Schulte, Daniel Maga. How to Conduct Prospective Life Cycle Assessment for Emerging Technologies? A Systematic Review and Methodological Guidance. Sustainability. 2020; 12 (3):1192.
Chicago/Turabian StyleNils Thonemann; Anna Schulte; Daniel Maga. 2020. "How to Conduct Prospective Life Cycle Assessment for Emerging Technologies? A Systematic Review and Methodological Guidance." Sustainability 12, no. 3: 1192.
In light of the debate on the circular economy, the EU strategy for plastics, and several national regulations, such as the German Packaging Act, polymeric foam materials as well as hybrid packaging (multilayered plastic) are now in focus. To understand the environmental impacts of various tray solutions for meat packaging, a comparative environmental assessment was conducted. As an environmental assessment method, a life cycle assessment (LCA) was applied following the ISO standards 14040/44. The nine packaging solutions investigated were: PS-based trays (extruded polystyrene and extruded polystyrene with five-layered structure containing ethylene vinyl alcohol), PET-based trays (recycled polyethylene terephthalate, with and without polyethylene layer, and amorphous polyethylene terephthalate), polypropylene (PP) and polylactic acid (PLA). The scope of the LCA study included the production of the tray and the end-of-life stage. The production of meat, the filling of the tray with meat and the tray sealing were not taken into account. The results show that the PS-based trays, especially the mono material solutions made of extruded polystyrene (XPS), show the lowest environmental impact across all 12 impact categories except for resource depletion. Multilayer products exhibit higher environmental impacts. The LCA also shows that the end-of-life stage has an important influence on the environmental performance of trays. However, the production of the trays dominates the overall results. Furthermore, the sensitivity analysis illustrates that, even if higher recycling rates were realised in the future, XPS based solutions would still outperform the rest from an environmental perspective.
Daniel Maga; Markus Hiebel; Venkat Aryan. A Comparative Life Cycle Assessment of Meat Trays Made of Various Packaging Materials. Sustainability 2019, 11, 5324 .
AMA StyleDaniel Maga, Markus Hiebel, Venkat Aryan. A Comparative Life Cycle Assessment of Meat Trays Made of Various Packaging Materials. Sustainability. 2019; 11 (19):5324.
Chicago/Turabian StyleDaniel Maga; Markus Hiebel; Venkat Aryan. 2019. "A Comparative Life Cycle Assessment of Meat Trays Made of Various Packaging Materials." Sustainability 11, no. 19: 5324.
This paper presents an attributional life cycle assessment for different recycling technologies for post-industrial and post-consumer polylactic acid (PLA) waste in Germany. The study investigates mechanical recycling of post-industrial and post-consumer PLA waste as well as solvent based recycling and chemical recycling of post-consumer PLA waste. Recycling of PLA waste is exclusively compared to thermal treatment since a comparison of the different recycling options is not possible due to different qualities of the waste streams and of the products. The life cycle impact results show environmental benefits of all recycling technologies. Environmental benefits are achieved by replacing virgin PLA with PLA recyclates. The substitution of virgin PLA by recyclates leads to higher savings of greenhouse gas emissions compared to incineration. Depending on the recycling technology, savings are 0.3–1.2 times higher. The lower global warming impact goes along with higher savings in primary energy demand and less fossil resource depletion. Apart from benefits related to global warming impact and energy, the comparison between thermal treatment and the recycling shows benefits in the category agricultural land occupation since biomass cultivation is avoided. Further environmental benefits are achieved in the impact categories photochemical ozone formation, terrestrial and aquatic eutrophication, acidification, and particulate matter due to avoided biomass cultivation, harvesting, and transportation. The latter three impacts are mainly influenced by agricultural activities and transportation, whereas eutrophication is driven by fertilization. The results demonstrate that recycling of PLA products can contribute to a better environmental performance of PLA products in their life cycle.
Daniel Maga; Markus Hiebel; Nils Thonemann. Life cycle assessment of recycling options for polylactic acid. Resources, Conservation and Recycling 2019, 149, 86 -96.
AMA StyleDaniel Maga, Markus Hiebel, Nils Thonemann. Life cycle assessment of recycling options for polylactic acid. Resources, Conservation and Recycling. 2019; 149 ():86-96.
Chicago/Turabian StyleDaniel Maga; Markus Hiebel; Nils Thonemann. 2019. "Life cycle assessment of recycling options for polylactic acid." Resources, Conservation and Recycling 149, no. : 86-96.
The transition of the German energy system is in full swing. Although the targets for the so-called “Energiewende” are set by the German Federal Government, different development paths are drawn by studies on energy scenarios. One major goal of the “Energiewende” is providing an electricity mix with reduced environmental impacts. Consequently, the goal of this study is to environmentally analyze the different energy scenarios. In a first step, a systematic literature review was followed to come up with 14 studies and 26 energy scenarios. After reducing the number of scenarios to five due to selection criteria, the environmental impacts of these five scenarios were analyzed applying life cycle assessment. Assumptions were made to transfer the scenarios into a sound life cycle assessment model. The life cycle assessment was conducted using the GaBi software as well as the GaBi database to investigate the environmental impacts of future electricity mixes in the years 2020, 2030, 2040, and 2050. The results show that the calculated impact on global warming of electricity generation in the different scenarios is higher compared to the greenhouse gas emissions presented in the respective studies. The differences can be explained, for example, by neglecting transmission losses in the calculation of the global warming impact in the studies.
Nils Thonemann; Daniel Maga. Life Cycle Assessment of German Energy Scenarios. Sustainable Production, Life Cycle Engineering and Management 2018, 165 -175.
AMA StyleNils Thonemann, Daniel Maga. Life Cycle Assessment of German Energy Scenarios. Sustainable Production, Life Cycle Engineering and Management. 2018; ():165-175.
Chicago/Turabian StyleNils Thonemann; Daniel Maga. 2018. "Life Cycle Assessment of German Energy Scenarios." Sustainable Production, Life Cycle Engineering and Management , no. : 165-175.
Decarbonization of electricity generation is crucial especially for energy‐intensive technologies such as steel mill gas‐based methanol production. The Energy System Development Plan is able to forecast the contribution of electricity producers to the power mix in a quarter‐hourly resolution. Integration of this forecasts in life cycle assessment enables to prospectively assess the impact on climate change of steel mill gas‐based methanol production. The analysis shows that if using power in hours with a high share of renewable energy, the global warming impact of steel mill gas‐based methanol production can be lowered.
Nils Thonemann; Daniel Maga; Cornelia Petermann. Integration of Results from the Energy System Development Plan into Life Cycle Assessment. Chemie Ingenieur Technik 2018, 90, 1587 -1593.
AMA StyleNils Thonemann, Daniel Maga, Cornelia Petermann. Integration of Results from the Energy System Development Plan into Life Cycle Assessment. Chemie Ingenieur Technik. 2018; 90 (10):1587-1593.
Chicago/Turabian StyleNils Thonemann; Daniel Maga; Cornelia Petermann. 2018. "Integration of Results from the Energy System Development Plan into Life Cycle Assessment." Chemie Ingenieur Technik 90, no. 10: 1587-1593.
The use of bagasse and trash from sugarcane fields in ethanol production is supposed to increase the ethanol yield per hectare, to reduce the energy demand, greenhouse gas emissions, and other environmental impacts. In this article, different technological options of ethanol production are investigated and quantified looking at potential environmental impacts. The first-generation ethanol from sugarcane is compared to stand-alone second-generation ethanol as well as an integrated first- and second-generation ethanol production. The method applied for this life cycle assessment follows the ISO standards 14040/44. The data used in this life cycle assessment is mainly derived from process simulation, literature, and primary data collection. Background data was taken from databases such as GaBi and ecoinvent. The life cycle impact assessment follows the default methods at midpoint level recommended by the International Reference Life Cycle Data System. The calculations were performed using the GaBi 7 life cycle assessment software. It is assumed that 50% of sugarcane trash is recovered and used for second-generation ethanol production, whereas the other 50% remain in the field to maintain soil fertility and to prevent soil erosion. In the case of first-generation ethanol, the same amount of trash is used for energy generation. The results of the life cycle impact assessment show that, compared to first-generation ethanol, second-generation ethanol from sugarcane in Brazil allows significant reductions in all investigated impact categories except resource depletion. Resource depletion, however, is strongly influenced by the demand for ammonium phosphate which is needed for inoculum preparation. Integrated first- and second-generation ethanol production also allows reductions in most of the environmental impacts except for global warming, photochemical ozone depletion, and resource depletion. The yield of ethanol per hectare increases since bagasse and trash are used for the production of second-generation ethanol. Consequently, the results show that agricultural land occupation is reduced for integrated first- and second-generation ethanol by approximately 11%, whereas second-generation ethanol allows reduction of land use by approximately a factor of 30. The use of bagasse and trash for ethanol production allows both the reduction of several environmental impacts and land use, in particular, because impacts caused by sugarcane cultivation are avoided. For the integrated first- and second-generation ethanol scenario, it is important to further reduce the total energy demand in order to achieve self-sufficiency for the plant energy and to avoid additional emissions from burning fossil fuels.
Daniel Maga; Nils Thonemann; Markus Hiebel; Diogo Sebastião; Tiago Lopes; César Fonseca; Francisco Gírio. Comparative life cycle assessment of first- and second-generation ethanol from sugarcane in Brazil. The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment 2018, 24, 266 -280.
AMA StyleDaniel Maga, Nils Thonemann, Markus Hiebel, Diogo Sebastião, Tiago Lopes, César Fonseca, Francisco Gírio. Comparative life cycle assessment of first- and second-generation ethanol from sugarcane in Brazil. The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment. 2018; 24 (2):266-280.
Chicago/Turabian StyleDaniel Maga; Nils Thonemann; Markus Hiebel; Diogo Sebastião; Tiago Lopes; César Fonseca; Francisco Gírio. 2018. "Comparative life cycle assessment of first- and second-generation ethanol from sugarcane in Brazil." The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment 24, no. 2: 266-280.
Life cycle assessment is needed for quantifying potential greenhouse gas savings through material utilization of steel mill gases. However, methodological guidance for this purpose is lacking. Therefore, the article presents different approaches to handle multi‐functionality. The investigation of steel mill gas based‐methanol shows varying impacts on climate change due to handling multi‐functionality differently. System expansion is recommended for assessing cross‐sectoral cooperation and substitution as well as economic allocation for product‐specific analyses.
Nils Thonemann; Daniel Maga; Cornelia Petermann. Handling of Multi-Functionality in Life Cycle Assessments for Steel Mill Gas Based Chemical Production. Chemie Ingenieur Technik 2018, 90, 1576 -1586.
AMA StyleNils Thonemann, Daniel Maga, Cornelia Petermann. Handling of Multi-Functionality in Life Cycle Assessments for Steel Mill Gas Based Chemical Production. Chemie Ingenieur Technik. 2018; 90 (10):1576-1586.
Chicago/Turabian StyleNils Thonemann; Daniel Maga; Cornelia Petermann. 2018. "Handling of Multi-Functionality in Life Cycle Assessments for Steel Mill Gas Based Chemical Production." Chemie Ingenieur Technik 90, no. 10: 1576-1586.
Daniel Maga; Martin Melchiors; Hartmut Henneken; Dieter Guse; Andreas Taden; Nils Thonemann. Klimaschutz durch biobasierte Klebstoffe. adhäsion KLEBEN & DICHTEN 2017, 61, 16 -23.
AMA StyleDaniel Maga, Martin Melchiors, Hartmut Henneken, Dieter Guse, Andreas Taden, Nils Thonemann. Klimaschutz durch biobasierte Klebstoffe. adhäsion KLEBEN & DICHTEN. 2017; 61 (9):16-23.
Chicago/Turabian StyleDaniel Maga; Martin Melchiors; Hartmut Henneken; Dieter Guse; Andreas Taden; Nils Thonemann. 2017. "Klimaschutz durch biobasierte Klebstoffe." adhäsion KLEBEN & DICHTEN 61, no. 9: 16-23.
Microalgae are considered a promising feedstock for the production of sustainable biofuels and biochemicals. Within the EU-funded demonstration project ‘Industrial scale Demonstration of Sustainable Algae Culture for Biofuels Production’ All-Gas (FP7-268208), a comprehensive life cycle assessment (LCA) was carried out. The project aims at demonstrating the feasibility of the sustainable production of biomethane based on low-cost microalgae cultures grown in municipal waste water. The full chain of processes from open algae ponds, downstream processing for biomethane production as well as the demonstration of use in vehicles is being implemented on a 10-ha facility in Chiclana de la Frontera (Spain). In contrast to many other LCA studies on algal biofuels, this LCA study used real pilot-scale data. However, it became clear that there still remains the challenge to acquire data with a high quality in particular for algae cultivation which requires a consistent data acquisition over several years. The results of the LCA show that compared to conventional waste water treatment and to the use of biomethane instead of compressed natural gas as vehicle fuel, the investigated algae biorefinery offers clear benefits with regard to the protection of the climate, protection of fossil resources and ozone depletion. In other impact categories such as particulate matter formation, photochemical oxidant formation, water deprivation or eutrophication, the performance of the investigated algae biorefinery is worse. Although there are still technical and environmental drawbacks associated with the algae biorefinery under investigation, the positive aspects already present at this time make it seem worthwhile to further develop and to further optimise this technological approach.
Daniel Maga. Life cycle assessment of biomethane produced from microalgae grown in municipal waste water. Biomass Conversion and Biorefinery 2016, 7, 1 -10.
AMA StyleDaniel Maga. Life cycle assessment of biomethane produced from microalgae grown in municipal waste water. Biomass Conversion and Biorefinery. 2016; 7 (1):1-10.
Chicago/Turabian StyleDaniel Maga. 2016. "Life cycle assessment of biomethane produced from microalgae grown in municipal waste water." Biomass Conversion and Biorefinery 7, no. 1: 1-10.
Purpose Information communication technology (ICT) offers the chance of enhancing the efficiency of public services and economic processes. The use of server-based computing is supposed to reduce the energy and material consumption in ICT services. This hypothesis will be investigated and quantified looking at the whole life cycle of the products. In this paper, server-based computing in combination with thin clients (SBCTC) is compared to a typical desktop PC (DPC) workplace over a time period of 5 years. Materials and methods The LCA method used in this paper is focused on the impact category of global warming potential. The calculations were performed using the Microsoft® Excel-based methodology for ecodesign of energy-related products tool. This tool includes the requirements of energy-related products (Directive 2009/125/EC). Moreover, an input-orientated method-material input per service unit (MIPS)-is applied which allows for an additional comparison between the two ICT solutions. Results and discussion Electricity consumption could be identified as a crucial environmental impact factor of DPC and SBCTC with both methods. Depending on the user behavior, more than 200 kg CO2e can be saved by switching from DPC to SBCTC. Over 80 kg CO2e can be saved in the material and extraction life cycle stage. The largest savings are achieved in the material category electronics (about 70 kg CO2e). A correlation analysis between the results of global warming potential (GWP) and the MIPS category "air" shows that both indicators GWP and air lead to the same conclusions when evaluating life cycle stages and ICT material categories. Conclusions Taking into account all assumptions made in this paper, SBCTC saves more than 65 % of greenhouse gas emissions compared to DPC during the entire life cycle. To ensure further profound comparisons of the ICT solutions, current data on the energy demand and detailed information on the composition of the IT products should be made available by industry
Daniel Maga; Markus Hiebel; Christian Knermann. Comparison of two ICT solutions: desktop PC versus thin client computing. The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment 2012, 18, 861 -871.
AMA StyleDaniel Maga, Markus Hiebel, Christian Knermann. Comparison of two ICT solutions: desktop PC versus thin client computing. The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment. 2012; 18 (4):861-871.
Chicago/Turabian StyleDaniel Maga; Markus Hiebel; Christian Knermann. 2012. "Comparison of two ICT solutions: desktop PC versus thin client computing." The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment 18, no. 4: 861-871.