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The article discusses the concept of recyclability and questions whether products that are advertised as recyclable or compostable are truly able to be recycled in real waste management systems. The term "recyclability" often only refers to the composition of the product or packaging, without considering the ability of sorting systems to detect and separate recyclables, or the processes for using separated recyclables as secondary materials. The focus on plastic packaging in discussions on recyclability is too narrow, as all products should be improved in terms of their recyclability. The article distinguishes between theoretical, technical, and real recyclability, and emphasizes the need for extended producer responsibility and regulations to improve recyclability. The authors argue that the term "recyclability" should be redefined to consider factors such as detectability, sortability, collection systems, and existing markets. They suggest giving preference to truly recyclable products through licensing fees and creating incentive systems to privilege recyclable products. The article concludes by inviting readers to participate in the Recy & DepoTech conference, which will discuss topics related to the circular economy. [Extracted from the article]

The goal of this work was to evaluate the socio-economic and environmental life cycle advantages of alternative defossilization pathways for a bio-based industrial network in Central Germany. Five scenarios were defined considering the potential energy utilization of further regionally available biomass capacities. The evaluation was made using an integrated approach, i.e., using a traditional life cycle assessment methodology, complemented by a regionalized socio-economic life cycle assessment framework. The results show that the environmental advantages from the change in energy provisioning reduced about 5% of the total environmental impacts. The analysis of the socio-economic impacts shows that the path to defossilization of the integrated network provides a clear enhancement of the expected regional socio-economic impacts. These results show that 100% decoupling from natural gas brings overall positive sustainability advantages to all organizations participating in the evaluated value chains. The methodological approach presented in this work can allow the identification of hotspots and opportunities within the regions where the implementation of technological alternatives takes place. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Crop residues derived from post-harvesting process have been problematic due to an on-field incineration, which caused air pollutants and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. An appropriate utilization of those biomasses can improve the environmental situation and provide a substitute for fossil fuels. Therefore, this study intends to analyze how left-over agricultural residues should be valorized in the decentralized bioethanol production configuration. With integrated techniques of geographical information system and multi-criteria analysis (GIS-MCA), we identify suitable locations for exhibiting decentralized sites matching the geographical backgrounds in each region. Under the precondition of a complete utilization of the agricultural residues, we found optimal installation numbers 71 units of decentralized production in total through suitability analysis. Conducting the location–allocation model, it is possible to determine production scales from the collectable spatially distributed biomass and transportation distances. Under the presumed conditions of installing 1 to 25 units, the logistics cost and total capital investment can reach USD 1.17–2.46 L−1 and USD 1.17–6.93 L−1, respectively. The results from examining the technical potential and economic feasibility aspects are key to designing decentralized bioethanol production facilities and maximizing the utilization of agricultural residues in Thailand. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper describes the development, performance and conclusions derived from three know-how and technology transfer projects to South American countries. The first project comprised a collaborative study by European [...]

The tea industry in Kenya is among the main consumers of firewood for its intensive thermal energy demand. Along with the growing concerns about firewood depletion, tea factories have begun transitioning to alternative fuels to power their boilers. Briquettes made of biomass residues are among the promising solutions; however, they are not yet widely adopted. This study was conducted to identify the factors that motivate the tea factories to use biomass briquettes instead of firewood and the factors hindering such substitution. The substitution potential was assessed, and the drivers and barriers of the substitution were examined using a combination of SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis and a PESTEL (political, economic, social, technological, environmental, and legal) framework. The findings suggest that even though using biomass briquettes is technically possible, it is not economically favorable for tea factories. The SWOT/PESTEL analysis identified 27 factors influencing the substitution. Among the key drivers are the depleting supply of firewood, the availability of biomass residues, and the external support from development organizations to improve the technical capacity in both tea and briquette industries. The study revealed the barriers to substitution include the cost competitiveness, insufficient supply, and varying quality of briquettes, as well as the lack of awareness and knowledge of briquettes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rapeseed is the dominant feedstock for biodiesel production in Germany; however, significant decline in crop yields observed during the 2018 drought in Europe poses economic and environmental risks for its sustained use as a fuel crop. Many Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) studies were conducted to quantify the potential environmental impacts of biodiesel production; however, only a few studies have considered the spatial and temporal heterogeneities of the studied regions. Furthermore, previous studies have usually only focused on the greenhouse gas (GHG) savings of biodiesel and have ignored the environmental burden and economic profits of biodiesel production. For the first time, we combined the Regional Environmental LCA model with an economic analysis to evaluate both the environmental impact and the economic benefits of biodiesel production in Central Germany (CG). Our results showed that emissions from rapeseed cultivation were the largest contributor to both global and regional environmental impact categories. In our study region, we found that GHG emissions were around 56%–71% lower for rapeseed‐based biodiesel than for fossil fuels. Due to the drought in 2018, we also observed that the regional rapeseed supply could not meet the demand of biodiesel production in CG. An economic analysis of biodiesel production found significant economies of scale effect in the biodiesel industry. In addition, none of the studied biodiesel plants were able to operate at their designed installed capacities without causing indirect land‐use change. Furthermore, the profitability of biodiesel production was closely related to the feedstock cultivation cost. Based on these findings, we concluded that a regionalized LCA model would be able to more accurately evaluate the environmental influence of biodiesel production by taking site‐specific conditions into consideration. We also suggest that potential biodiesel plant operators take the regional biodiesel production density and feedstock cultivation conditions into account when deciding on plant size. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A large-scale biogas upgrading plant using the CarboTech® technology with a treatment capacity of 1333 Nm3 biogas per hour was analyzed. Our scope of evaluation encompasses all technology steps that are necessary for upgrading biogas, i.e., both pretreatment and biogas upgrade. A cradle-to-gate life-cycle and life-cycle cost assessment (LCA and LCCA) methodology was used with the functional unit (FU) of 1 Nm3 of biogas upgraded in order to ease comparison with other biogas upgrading technologies. The calculation was made using the GaBi8 LCA software and databases of GaBi Professional, Construction materials, Food&Feed, and the ecoinvent3. We applied the CML characterization model with all its mid-point indicators. The mid-point indicators of the CML characterization model were aggregated after normalization by the CML2001 - Jan.2016 normalization factors. The normalized environmental impact was 541.74·10−15/Nm3 raw biogas. The highest environmental impacts were the marine aquatic ecotoxicity potential (15.705 kg dichlorobenzene-equiv./Nm3 raw biogas), the abiotic depletion potential (1.037 MJ/Nm3 raw biogas), and global warming potential (0.113 kg CO2-equiv./Nm3 raw biogas). The unit production cost of the PSA technology was 0.05-0.063 €/Nm3 raw biogas. The most considerable source of expenses was the operational cost from which 77% was spent on electricity. The initial investment, personal costs, and the reinvestment amounted to only 34% of the total costs for the whole life cycle. Strategies to lower the environmental burden of the PSA technology are to use green electricity and to optimize the size of the plant in order to reduce unnecessary material flows of building material and their indirect energy use. This can also lower investment expenditures while automatization and remote control may spare personnel costs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The efficient use of biogenic residues can make a significant contribution to increase resource efficiency. Due to its high energy efficiency, hydrothermal carbonization (HTC) is being discussed as a potentially suitable technology for particularly wet and sludgy biogenic residues. In Germany, however, it has not yet been established at industrial continuous operation. Among others, this is due to missing solutions for the economic treatment of the high organic loads in the liquid by‐product and insufficient knowledge on long‐term processing. Nevertheless, it is still expected that HTC could be able to contribute in the future, especially for sewage sludge disposal. Whether and under what conditions this could be the case is the subject of this study. The competitiveness of modeled cases for industrial sewage sludge HTC, which address different future paths, compared to thermal sludge treatment is investigated by using a multi‐criteria instrument. Results show that HTC can only compete with the reference technology if certain framework conditions are given. Particularly, an efficient phosphorus recycling should be integrated and the production costs of the solid product should be at least less than €325 per metric ton according to this case study. The treatment performance of the liquid phase should be as high as possible whereby costs for further treatment equipment should be minimized, so that mentioned productions costs are not exceeded. This article met the requirements for a gold‐gold JIE data openness badge described at http://jie.click/badges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the need for a stronger integration of social and engineering sciences in order to achieve a sustainable circular economy. The author reflects on their experience at a life cycle management conference, noting a shift towards a more holistic approach that considers the social implications of products and processes. The article highlights the historical lack of awareness regarding the social dimensions of waste management and the limited integration of social sciences in decision-making processes. The author emphasizes the importance of incorporating social tools and methodologies into engineering evaluations to create systems that meet the needs and values of society. The article concludes by inviting scientists and practitioners to submit manuscripts focusing on these gaps to accelerate the development of more holistic tools and methods for a sustainable circular economy. [Extracted from the article]

However, even after all these years, the discussion is still ongoing, circularity having not been sufficiently defined (and by the way, nor is the definition of cascading!), which has led to conflicting discussions when it comes to evaluating the impacts of new technological concepts. Time flies by, but almost 7 years ago we published an editorial motivating the discussion on the (at that time) strategic aspects of circular economy and the bioeconomy. [Extracted from the article]

Summary: The German government has recently initiated funding schemes that incentivize strategies for wood‐based bioeconomy regions. Regional wood and chemical industries have been encouraged to act symbiotically, that is, share pilot plant facilities, couple processes where feasible, and cascade woody feedstock throughout their process networks. However, during the planning stages of these bioeconomy regions, options need to be assessed for sustainably integrating processes and energy integration between the various industries that produce bio‐based polymers and engineered wood products. The aim of this paper is to identify the environmental sustainability of industrial symbiosis for producing high‐value‐added, bio‐based products in the wood‐based bioeconomy region of Central Germany. An analysis was conducted of three possible future scenarios with varying degrees of symbiosis in the bioeconomy network. A life cycle assessment (LCA) approach was used to compare these three scenarios to a traditional fossil‐based production system. Eleven environmental impact categories were considered. The results show that, in most cases, the bioeconomy network outperformed the fossil‐based production system, mitigating environmental impacts by 25% to 130%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A considerable amount of wet biogenic residues and waste has no resource-efficient use in several European countries yet. Hydrothermal processes (HTP) seem to be promising for treating such biomass as they best work with substrates with 70% to 90% water content. However, thus far the suitability of HTP for this purpose has not been sufficiently evaluated, for which this work aims to identify suitable multi-criteria analysis (MCA) methods that can be used to identify promising ways for the hydrothermal treatment of wet bio-waste. A review on 31 recent MCA studies in bio-waste management was conducted with the aim of comparing them to methodological requirements for evaluating HTP. Furthermore, an MCA approach for HTP based on the review findings is proposed. Results show that no observed MCA method is directly transferable for assessing HTP, for which a customized approach combining the analytical hierarchy process and the technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solutions is proposed and preliminarily validated with literature data. These preliminary calculations indicate that hydrothermal gasification seems most promising under consideration of multiple criteria using the available average and exemplary data. However, needless to say there is still a long way to go to obtain the sufficient adequate data to validate and use the model appropriately, for which further studies are necessary to acquire more reliable data and to assess also future technology developments of HTP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents the definition, building, calibration and application of a system dynamics simulation model to quantify the present and future comparative advantages and disadvantages of using forest and agricultural residual biomass for energetic purpose through different processes and technologies, on a regional basis. A dynamic structure of the agricultural and forestry biomass process activities (i.e. production, transport, conversion and consumption) based on regional time-series data was built, implemented into and calibrated within a dynamic simulation tool (Vensim software) within a Hungarian county. Besides the agriculture and forestry sectors, the model includes data about demography, economy, environment and land use, among others. For carrying out the assessment, realistic scenarios of future biomass processes and of biomass use were formulated, characterised by quantitative sustainable development indicators and simulated within the dynamic model. The results prove that the introduced model supports decision making of biomass utilisation in a regional scale, through comparing and analysing quantitative changes of economic, social and environment indicators, which characterise a sustainable regional development. The model therefore allows analyses and evaluation of not only partial prosperous or adverse characteristics of biomass processes and use, but also to relate regional components and their development over time. The developed dynamic tool is therefore a powerful method to model complex systems, such as a regional energy system, considering the framework of the regional preferences stated by the regional stakeholders. It can thus provide useful decision support, especially when used as a priority-based screening of potential regional development programmes in the energy field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When surveying the trends and criteria for the design for recycling (DfR) of bio-based polymers, priorities appear to lie in energy recovery at the end of the product life of durable products, such as bio-based thermosets. Non-durable products made of thermoplastic polymers exhibit good properties for material recycling. The latter commonly enjoy growing material recycling quotas in countries that enforce a landfill ban. Quantitative and qualitative indicators are needed for characterizing progress in the development towards more recycling friendly bio-based polymers. This would enable the deficits in recycling bio-based plastics to be tracked and improved. The aim of this paper is to analyse the trends in the DfR of bio-based polymers and the constraints posed by the recycling infrastructure on plastic polymers from a systems perspective. This analysis produces recommendations on how life cycle assessment indicators can be introduced into the dialogue between designers and recyclers in order to promote DfR principles to enhance the cascading use of bio-based polymers within the bioeconomy, and to meet circular economy goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Considering successive and costly increases in electricity rates, this article evaluates the generation of electricity from a photovoltaic system using solar energy, a renewable source. The solar photovoltaic system is installed at UNIVATES University Center, a public university in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, and it is also connected to the electrical grid. Data related to the climatic conditions of the location, such as incident solar radiation, rainfall, and mean temperature, were obtained during the system's evaluation period and used along with bibliographic research on similar systems installed in southern Brazil. Our study quantified the energy produced over one calendar year (2014) and related it to the climatic variables and the conversion efficiency achieved by the system's photovoltaic modules. Our results show that there is both a strong relationship between the production of energy and climatic conditions and that the city, Lajeado, and the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul, have good potential to supply energy using photovoltaic systems connected to the electrical grid. The horizontal global solar radiation average obtained in the study location was 4.14 kilowatts per square meter per day (kWh/m2/day), and the average monthly production of energy reached 243.93 kWh/m2/month, with a total of 2,927.10 kWh produced in 2014, achieving a monthly average conversion efficiency of 11.07%. This conversion efficiency is close to the value of 12.6% obtained in 2013 in a similar study of the same solar photovoltaic system conducted over a shorter time period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: With many environmental burdens associated with bioenergy production occurring at the regional level, there is a need to produce more regional and spatially representative life cycle assessment of bioenergy systems. On the other hand, such assessments also need to account for the global and cumulative impacts along the full bioenergy life cycle in order to support effective regional policy measures and decision making. Therefore, the challenge is to find a balance. In other words, how should we define the regional context for bioenergy system assessments in order to complement life cycle thinking? The aim of this review is to answer this question by providing an overview of important considerations when assessing bioenergy systems in a regional and LCA context and how these two contexts intersect. It also aims to help guide and orientate LCA practitioners interested in including more regional aspects in their bioenergy studies. Until now, such a review which explores the integration of regional and life cycle contexts in relation to bioenergy systems and their products has not been done. Methods: As a first step, we define what we mean by the term region. We then look at the potential burdens relating to bioenergy systems and their relationship with the regional context. In a next step, we explore life cycle thinking and the intersection between the regional and LCA contexts by providing some examples from the literature. We then discuss the benefits and limitations of such regionally contextualized life cycle approaches in relation to bioenergy production systems and indeed other alternative biomass uses. Results and discussion: Three regional contexts were identified to help orientate life cycle thinking aiming to assess the regional and nonregional environmental implications of bioenergy production. These contexts were as follows: 'within regional,' 'regional and ROW,' and 'regionalized.' The added value of implementing a regionally contextualized life cycle approach is the ability, therefore, to include greater regional and spatial details in the assessments of bioenergy production systems, without losing the links to the diversity of global supply chains. Thus, providing greater geographical and regional insight into how such potential burdens can be reduced or shifted burdens avoided or how associated regional production activities could be optimized to mitigate such burdens. Conclusions: The use of different regional contexts as proposed in this paper is not only useful to orientate life cycle thinking in relation to bioenergy systems but also for the assessment of alternative novel bio-based systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Developed nations with thermal treatment facilities were able to cope with this increased waste quantity effectively to a certain extent, but the situation was not the same in developing countries, which lacked proper collection and/or treatment technology. One year ago, we wrote our editorial for the Open Access issue of I WM&R i , as witnesses of the start of a pandemic that was already giving some hints on its terrible dimensions. Our goal at I Waste Management & Research i is to provide a platform of information for the latest developments of the pandemic situation in the waste management sector. [Extracted from the article]