Carbon Footprint: Calculations and Sensitivity Analysis for Cow Milk Produced in Flanders, a Belgian Region

2015 ◽  
pp. 300-321 ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 43 (2) ◽  
pp. 223-243 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sanjay Jharkharia ◽  
Chiranjit Das

Purpose The purpose of this study is to model a vehicle routing problem with integrated picking and delivery under carbon cap and trade policy. This study also provides sensitivity analyses of carbon cap and price to the total cost. Design/methodology/approach A mixed integer linear programming (MILP) model is formulated to model the vehicle routing with integrated order picking and delivery constraints. The model is then solved by using the CPLEX solver. Carbon footprint is estimated by a fuel consumption function that is dependent on two factors, distance and vehicle speed. The model is analyzed by considering 10 suppliers and 20 customers. The distance and vehicle speed data are generated using simulation with random numbers. Findings Significant amount of carbon footprint can be reduced through the adoption of eco-efficient vehicle routing with a marginal increase in total transportation cost. Sensitivity analysis indicates that compared to carbon cap, carbon price has more influence on the total cost. Research limitations/implications The model considers mid-sized problem instances. To analyze large size problems, heuristics and meta-heuristics may be used. Practical implications This study provides an analysis of carbon cap and price model that would assist practitioners and policymakers in formulating their policy in the context of carbon emissions. Originality/value This study provides two significant contributions to low carbon supply chain management. First, it provides a vehicle routing model under carbon cap and trade policy. Second, it provides a sensitivity analysis of carbon cap and price in the model.


2016 ◽  
Vol 56 (7) ◽  
pp. 1017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter J. Moate ◽  
Matthew H. Deighton ◽  
S. Richard O. Williams ◽  
Jennie E. Pryce ◽  
Ben J. Hayes ◽  
...  

This review examines research aimed at reducing enteric methane emissions from the Australian dairy industry. Calorimeter measurements of 220 forage-fed cows indicate an average methane yield of 21.1 g methane (CH4)/kg dry matter intake. Adoption of this empirical methane yield, rather than the equation currently used in the Australian greenhouse gas inventory, would reduce the methane emissions attributed to the Australian dairy industry by ~10%. Research also indicates that dietary lipid supplements and feeding high amounts of wheat substantially reduce methane emissions. It is estimated that, in 1980, the Australian dairy industry produced ~185 000 t of enteric methane and total enteric methane intensity was ~33.6 g CH4/kg milk. In 2010, the estimated production of enteric methane was 182 000 t, but total enteric methane intensity had declined ~40% to 19.9 g CH4/kg milk. This remarkable decline in methane intensity and the resultant improvement in the carbon footprint of Australian milk production was mainly achieved by increased per-cow milk yield, brought about by the on-farm adoption of research findings related to the feeding and breeding of dairy cows. Options currently available to further reduce the carbon footprint of Australian milk production include the feeding of lipid-rich supplements such as cottonseed, brewers grains, cold-pressed canola, hominy meal and grape marc, as well as feeding of higher rates of wheat. Future technologies for further reducing methane emissions include genetic selection of cows for improved feed conversion to milk or low methane intensity, vaccines to reduce ruminal methanogens and chemical inhibitors of methanogenesis.


2018 ◽  
Vol 25 (7) ◽  
pp. 938-957
Author(s):  
Zahra Sadat Moussavi Nadoushani ◽  
Ali Akbarnezhad ◽  
David Rey

Purpose Due to considerable contributions of the construction industry to the global carbon emissions, a great deal of attention is placed on possible incorporation of carbon footprint minimization as an important objective in the planning of construction operations. The purpose of this paper is to present a framework to estimate and minimize the carbon emissions of the concrete placing operation through identifying the optimal number of pumps and the inter-arrival time of truck mixers. Design/methodology/approach The proposed framework integrates discrete event simulation and multi-objective optimization to estimate and minimize the carbon emission, costs and production rate of the concrete placing operation. An actual construction project is used to demonstrate the application of the proposed framework. Furthermore, a sensitivity analysis is performed to investigate the sensitivity of the results to variations in modeling parameters including the ratio of idle to non-idle emission rates of equipment and the activity duration distributions. Findings The results of the case study highlight that variations in the number of pumps and inter-arrival time of truck mixers significantly affect the carbon emissions, cost and production rate of the concrete placing operation. Furthermore, the results of the sensitivity analysis show that variations in the ratio of idle to non-idle emission rates for pumps and truck mixers have little effects on the selected setting for the project. This is contrary to the effect of uncertainty in the activity duration distributions, which was found to be significant. Originality/value Results of this study provide an insight into the trade-off between carbon emissions, cost and production rate of the concrete placing operation.


Author(s):  
Vasiliki Christina Panagiotopoulou ◽  
Panagiotis Stavropoulos ◽  
George Chryssolouris

AbstractManufacturing sector is considered to be the second highest contributor in greenhouse gases emissions in EU, secondary to energy sector. The environmental impact of products, processes, and infrastructures of manufacturing is defined as the mass equivalent of carbon dioxide emissions, also known as carbon footprint, because carbon dioxide accounts for the largest portion of greenhouse gases emissions. The aim of this review is to show the impact of manufacturing on carbon emissions and to investigate the importance of carbon emission factors on the carbon footprint of manufacturing. This was performed via (1) mapping and categorizing the sources of carbon emission at process, machine, and system level; (2) identifying the weight factor of carbon emissions factors via sensitivity analysis; and (3) determining which carbon emission factor has the heaviest contribution in carbon footprint calculation. In all examples of the sensitivity analysis, it was shown that carbon emission factor for electrical energy was the only contributing factor at process level while being the strongest at machine level. At system level, the strongest contributor was the carbon emission factor for material production. To reduce the carbon emissions, one must identify the tuneable parameters at process, machine, and system level, from material, machine tool, and energy point of view. However, the highest reduction in carbon footprint can be achieved by reducing the carbon emission factors of electrical energy using renewable power sources such as solar or wind and by reducing the carbon emission factors for material production using recycling materials as “raw” material.


2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 325-340 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dan Fernandes ◽  
Song Wang ◽  
Qiang Xu ◽  
Russel Buss ◽  
Daniel Chen

The Allam cycle is the latest advancement in power generation technologies with a high cycle efficiency, zero NOx emission, and carbon dioxide available at pipeline specification for sequestration and utilization. The Allam cycle plant is a semi-closed, direct-fired, oxy-fuel Brayton cycle that uses high pressure supercritical carbon dioxide as a working fluid with sophisticated heat recuperation. This paper conducted process analyses including exergy analysis, sensitivity analysis, air separation unit (ASU) oxygen pump/compressor option analysis, and carbon footprint analysis for the integrated Allam power plant (natural gas)/ASU complex with a high degree of heat and work integration. Earlier works on exergy analysis were done on the Allam cycle and ASU independently. Exergy analysis on the integrated plants helps identify the equipment with the largest loss of thermodynamic efficiency. Sensitivity analysis investigated the effects of important ASU operational parameters along with equipment constraint limits on the downstream Allam cycle. Energy efficiency and carbon footprint are compared among the state-of-the-art fossil-fuel power generation cycles.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document