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Life Cycle Assessment methodology was applied to the industrial sector, with the aim to evaluate the environmental sustainability of different chemical processes. In particular, the ammoxidation reaction to produce acrylonitrile was chosen as a case study, comparing the environmental loads of the traditional process (SOHIO) with the alternative routes starting from propane on the base of the same amount of acrylonitrile produced (1 kg). Information reported on patents, and data collected on Ecoinvent 2.2 database were used to create each ammoxidation scenario in SimaPro 7.3.3 software. The system boundaries of the study include the main production stages on industrial scale: reaction flows, heat exchange, raw materials for catalyst manufacture, the main plant emissions and transportation phase. The comparison was carried out using ReCiPe 2008 method, expressing results in terms of midpoint impact categories, as: climate change (both damage on human health and on ecosystem), particulate matter formation, fossil fuel depletion and metal depletion. Results show how the alternative routes starting from propane seem to have higher potential impact than the traditional SOHIO process, due to the lower catalysts activity. Also, to quantify the environmental load of ammoxidation processes a comparison with other common chemical industrial productions was done. This simplified approach is able to show the environmental impacts of the ammoxidation scenarios in a broader industrial context.

The fashion industry presents a significant social role, employing millions of people, but it also contributes to resource depletion, ecosystem stress, and climate change. Consequently, sustainability within this sector has garnered increased attention. As part of the fashion sector, the footwear industry is also facing this challenge. With over 23.9 billion shoes produced annually, waste management in this sector presents significant environmental hurdles. In this case study, material flow analysis and life cycle assessment methodologies were adopted to identify and quantify waste flows, their dynamics, and the potential environmental impacts related to one of the main fashion footwear districts in Italy. The results identify opportunities for improving the recovery and recycling processes, especially concerning leather, a key component of shoes contributing to over 30 % of various environmental categories. It was also highlighted that the footwear industry's path to sustainability includes legislative progress, improvements in waste management, and collaboration among stakeholders., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests: Fabrizio Passarini reports financial support was provided by Emilia-Romagna Region, Italy. If there are other authors, they declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Urbanization and globalization have led to an increasing concern and focus on the sustainability of the food sector, particularly in discussing the composition of consumers' diets. This study examines Italian consumption habits, categorizing them into four macro-geographical areas (North-West, North-East, Center, South, and Islands), utilizing public data obtained from surveys including 3323 individuals, and assesses their environmental impacts through the application of the Life Cycle Assessment methodology. The findings unveil distinct dietary patterns across Italian macro-regions, indicative of cultural disparities, and present avenues for promoting environmentally sustainable dietary choices. The study identifies meat consumption as the primary environmental concern across all macro-regions, with fish emerging as a secondary contributor to particulate matter formation. Pork and poultry exhibit notable impacts within toxicity-related categories. Additionally, the research underscores challenges in data collection, notably the absence of a site-specific Italian database, and underscores the necessity for more recent consumption data to accurately capture contemporary Italian dietary habits. Finally, the study demonstrates that addressing the issue from a macro-regional perspective allows for more targeted and dedicated cultural interventions., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Diversifying energy sources and managing waste biomass are two pressing contemporary issues. The new technology proposed in this study aims to address both by converting waste biomass into energy and fertilizer through the use of a biofuel cell (BFC). The purpose of this study is to assess the environmental impacts associated with this innovative technology through a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). To achieve the goal, the production and use of the cell were modelled, considering both laboratory-scale operations and industrial-scale approximations. The study explored alternative scenarios, such as sensitivity analyses involving different acids and bases, renewable energy sources, and heat recovery. Comparisons with conventional biomass waste treatments (anaerobic digestion and composting) demonstrated that the BFC technology remains competitive. To further improve the BFC's environmental footprint, efforts should focus on reducing energy requirements and enhancing nutrient recovery during scale-up. These insights are crucial for advancing sustainable waste treatment technologies and maximizing the potential of discarded biomass in an environmentally friendly manner., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Pharmaceuticals are among the most challenging products to assess by life cycle assessment (LCA). The main drawback highlighted by LCA practitioners is the lack of inventory data, both regarding the synthesis of active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) precursors (upstream) and the details concerning the downstream phases (use and end of life). A short critical review of pharma-LCAs found in the literature is here proposed, with discussion of several tools and models used to predict the environmental impacts derived from the life cycle of pharmaceuticals, emphasizing current strengths and weaknesses, and exploring the possibilities for improvements. The case of antibiotics is selected as a representative class of pharmaceuticals, due to their massive use worldwide and the growing related issue of antimicrobial resistance enrichment, which is generally not included in most of LCAs. Also, we comment on drafting product category rules (PCRs) in the relevant field to develop standard methodologies and enhance the comparability of the studies, ultimately advocating collaboration with companies and improving inventory data quality and availability for the whole value chain of products., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

The recent large-scale urbanization and industrialization resulted in an impressive growth of solid waste generation worldwide. Organic fraction generally constitutes a large fraction of municipal solid waste and its peculiar chemical properties open to various valorization strategies. On this purpose, life cycle assessment is applied to an innovative industrial system that processes 18 kt/y of agricultural and livestock waste into a high-quality soil conditioner. The high-quality soil conditioner production system consists of a series of processes, including anaerobic digestion and vermicomposting, allowing the generation of a peat-like material with high carbon content, porosity, and water-holding capacity. The presence of a photovoltaic plant and a cogeneration plant, fed with the biogas produced in the anaerobic digestion, makes the system entirely self-sufficient from the national grid and generating a surplus of electricity of 1177MWh/y. The high-quality soil conditioner showed better environmental performances in 15 out of 18 impact categories when compared to alternative scenarios. In particular, the high-quality soil conditioner and the related biowaste management resulted in a carbon saving of around 397 kg CO 2 eq/ton compared with a scenario involving the employment of peat in place of the high-quality soil conditioner and a traditional biowaste management, and 165 kg CO 2 eq/ton compared with a scenario where cogeneration is replaced by biomethane upgrading. This study demonstrates the possibility of using organic waste as an environmentally sustainable and renewable source for energy and carbon to soil conditioning., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Prospective life cycle assessment models were developed and applied at the laboratory and industrial scale with the aim to evaluate the environmental burdens associated with the LimoFish process used to produce the fish oil "AnchoiOil", the new organic fertilizer "AnchoisFert" or biogas (by means of anaerobic digestion) after treatment of anchovy fillet leftovers (AnLeft) with agro-solvent d-limonene. Potential impacts for climate change and freshwater eutrophication were estimated at 29.1 kg CO 2 eq/kg AnLeft and 1.7E-07 kg PO 4 eq/kg AnLeft at laboratory scale, and at 1.5 kg CO 2 eq/kg AnLeft and 2.2E-07 kg PO 4 eq/kg AnLeft at industrial scale. Electricity consumption is the main contributor to the environmental impact of the process and plays a significant role in the production of d-limonene, for which cold pressing extraction would reduce the related impacts by ∼ 70 %. The use of the solid by-product as organic fertilizer or input to anaerobic digestion would provide additional environmental benefits to the process. The LimoFish process is a successful example of a low impacting strategy to reduce the demand for natural resources and maximize the application of the circular economy principles in the fishing industry., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

A 2-year monitoring campaign was carried out within the Marche Region (Italy) to quantify the potential still edible wasted food (seFW) within the sorted (seFW sorted ) and unsorted (seFW unsorted ) waste streams. Results were elaborated to estimate the distribution of seFW among the five provinces and the amount per capita. Results in terms of total quantities per inhabitants (seFW index per capita) depict an important variability between districts but almost constant in years (26-38 kg/inhabitants in 2018 and 26-36 kg/inhabitants in 2019). Scores in Marche were then used to study the national situation, adopting the same percentage factors. Analysis was performed on 2019 data. Gradual colour shade was used to identify the Regions with greater seFW production potential. Worst scores are achieved by Lazio, Lombardia and Sicilia (red), followed by others classified as orange and yellow. More than 1.5 Mt potential seFW was estimated at national level, 29% of which is due to the unsorted fraction. Results at national level were used to assess the potential environmental impact related to seFW in terms of climate change. Carbon footprint indicator was quantified per capita (69 kg equivalent carbon dioxide (CO 2 e)/inhabitant/year in the case of Marche) and overall (3.5 MtCO 2 e). In addition, an evaluation of the potential economic implications related to the greenhouse gases emitted was made using the Social Cost of Carbon. Results showed that cost of the tCO 2 e global damage related to seFW in Italy ranges from 35 to 700 M$.

The selective preparation of monoalkylglyceryl ethers (MAGEs) is a task for researchers owing to their broad range of applications. In this work, green feedstocks such as glycidol and alcohols were used to prepare MAGEs under mild reaction conditions (80 °C, 3 h, 0.5 mol % catalyst) in the presence of acid heterogeneous catalysts. Nafion shows the best performances in terms of conversion and selectivity to MAGES and also high stability. A comparison of the environmental performances with the most consolidated pathway from glycerol has shown that the usage of glycidol (recovered as a value-added product from Epicerol process) and Nafion leads to a lower impact on ecosystems. In addition, results achieved from a simplified socio-economic analysis show that the innovative route here proposed has potential (at the laboratory scale) of enhancing potential gains and of reducing the social implications resulting from externalities associated with environmental impacts (e.g., CO 2 equivalents)., (© 2018 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.)

The disposal of any waste by recovering it within the production plant represents the ultimate goal of every biorefinery. In this scenario, the selective preparation of monoalkyl glyceryl ethers (MAGEs) starting from glycidol, obtained as byproduct in the epichlorohydrin production plant, represents a very promising strategy. Here, we report the synthesis of MAGEs through the reaction of glycidol with alcohols catalyzed by a green homogeneous Lewis acids catalyst, such as Bi III triflate, under very mild reaction conditions. To evaluate the green potential of the proposed alternative, a simplified life cycle assessment (LCA) approach was followed by comparing the environmental performance of the proposed innovative route to prepare MAGEs with that of the most investigated pathway from glycerol. A considerable reduction of all impact categories considered was observed in our experimental conditions, suggesting that the glycidol-to-MAGEs route can be a valuable integration to the glycerol-to-MAGEs chain. Thanks to the use of primary data within the LCA model, the results achieved are a very good approximation of the real case., (© 2017 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.)