scholarly journals Environmental Impacts of Surgical Procedures: Life Cycle Assessment of Hysterectomy in the United States

2015 ◽  
Vol 49 (3) ◽  
pp. 1779-1786 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cassandra L. Thiel ◽  
Matthew Eckelman ◽  
Richard Guido ◽  
Matthew Huddleston ◽  
Amy E. Landis ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Surgical Procedures ◽  
The United States

A Comparative Life-Cycle Assessment of Briquetting Logging Residues and Lumber Manufacturing Coproducts in Western United States

2018 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 11-24 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sevda Alanya-Rosenbaum ◽  
Richard D. Bergman ◽  
Indroneil Ganguly ◽  
Francesca Pierobon
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Timber Harvest ◽  
The United States ◽  
Western United States ◽  
Forest Residues ◽  
Post Harvest ◽  
Forest Residue

Abstract. Timber harvest activities in the western United States have resulted in large volumes of low- to no-value logging (forest) residues. Alternatives to pile-and-burning are needed to best utilize this material and to mitigate the resultant environmental impacts. Briquetting (densifying) forest residues near-woods is one such option and is the focus of this study. This study presents a cradle-to-grave life-cycle assessment (LCA) performed to evaluate the overall environmental impacts associated with briquetting post-harvest forest residues and dry sawmill residues (sawdust) in the Pacific Northwest (PNW) region of the United States. Environmental impacts resulting from the two briquette production systems were compared with firewood and propane production, which are common residential heating sources in rural areas of the PNW, on a per 1 MJ of useful energy for domestic heating. In the briquetted post-harvest forest residue system, the feedstock preparation stage had the largest share in global warming (GW) impact, mainly resulting from the drying process (69.5%), followed by transportation. Valorization of post-harvest forest residues, in combination with a briquetter, to produce a bioenergy carrier was revealed to be advantageous in smog, acidification, and eutrophication impact categories, with considerable environmental benefits from avoided pile-and-burn emissions. With all scenarios investigated, briquette production from post-harvest forest residues with high dryer efficiency showed lowest GW impact compared to briquetting sawmill residues and firewood supply chain. For a scenario analysis, LCA showed that using a diesel generator to support the forest residue briquetter operation resulted in 45% higher GW impact compared to use of a wood-gas-powered generator. Keywords: Bioenergy, Biomass densification, Briquette, Forest residues, Life-cycle assessment, Sawdust.

scholarly journals Detailed life cycle assessment of Bounty® paper towel operations in the United States

2016 ◽  
Vol 131 ◽  
pp. 509-522 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wesley Ingwersen ◽  
Maria Gausman ◽  
Annie Weisbrod ◽  
Debalina Sengupta ◽  
Seung-Jin Lee ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
The United States ◽  
Paper Towel

Deciphering the true life cycle environmental impacts and costs of the mega-scale shale gas-to-olefins projects in the United States

2016 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 820-840 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chang He ◽  
Fengqi You
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Shale Gas ◽  
The United States ◽  
Production Costs ◽  
Environmental Models ◽  
The U.S

Using detailed techno-economic-environmental models, we investigate the environmental impacts and production costs of the mega-scale shale gas-to-olefins projects in the U.S.

scholarly journals Life Cycle Assessment of Dietary Patterns in the United States: A Full Food Supply Chain Perspective

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 1586 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daesoo Kim ◽  
Ranjan Parajuli ◽  
Gregory J. Thoma
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Supply Chain ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Food Consumption ◽  
The United States ◽  
Vegetarian Diet ◽  
Dietary Guidelines ◽  
Consumption Patterns ◽  
Consumption Pattern

A tiered hybrid input–output-based life cycle assessment (LCA) was conducted to analyze potential environmental impacts associated with current US food consumption patterns and the recommended USDA food consumption patterns. The greenhouse gas emissions (GHGEs) in the current consumption pattern (CFP 2547 kcal) and the USDA recommended food consumption pattern (RFP 2000 kcal) were 8.80 and 9.61 tons CO2-eq per household per year, respectively. Unlike adopting a vegetarian diet (i.e., RFP 2000 kcal veg or RFP 2600 kcal veg), adoption of a RFP 2000 kcal diet has a probability of increasing GHGEs and other environmental impacts under iso-caloric analysis. The bigger environmental impacts of non-vegetarian RFP scenarios were largely attributable to supply chain activities and food losses at retail and consumer levels. However, the RFP 2000 vegetarian diet showed a significant reduction in the environmental impacts (e.g., GHGEs were 22% lower than CFP 2547). Uncertainty analysis confirmed that the RFP 2600 scenario (mean of 11.2; range 10.3–12.4 tons CO2-eq per household per year) is higher than CFP 2547 (mean of 8.81; range 7.89–9.95 tons CO2-eq per household per year) with 95% confidence. The outcomes highlight the importance of incorporating environmental sustainability into dietary guidelines through the entire life cycle of the food system with a full accounting of the effects of food loss/waste.

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