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Comprehensive assessment methods of environmental impacts during textile production
Abstract
As an important part of textile production, the dyeing process not only makes the greatest contribution to water consumption and wastewater discharge, but its use of synthetic dyestuffs has a negative impact on all forms of life. To assess the environmental impact of textile production, it is necessary to assess the environmental impact of the dyeing process. Comprehensive assessment methods can convert multi-dimensional environmental impacts into unified quantitative indicators and enable comparisons between different products or environmental impact categories. In this study, five comprehensive assessment methods (i.e., ReCiPe, Eco-Indicator 99, Nike MSI, Environmental Price, and Environmental Profit & Loss) were applied to evaluate the environmental impact of the cotton fabric dyeing process. Furthermore, a preliminary assessment framework was constructed which could provide a reference for industry experts to establish uniform environmental assessment standards. The results indicate that diverse methods are recommended to be applied in parallel to analyse the environmental impact of textile products, and the use of individual comprehensive environmental assessment methods has its limitations and characteristics. Among the five methods, the ReCiPe method stands out as one of the most advanced LCA methodologies with the widest range of midpoint impact categories and a global-scale calculation mechanism. The scoring method offers sufficient possibilities to compare the severity of different environmental impacts caused by the dyeing process, and the monetary value model can be used as a more intuitive tool to characterize environmental impact no matter from the midpoint or endpoint.
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The present article focuses on a cradle-to-grave life cycle assessment (LCA) of the most widely adopted solar photovoltaic power generation technologies, viz., mono-crystalline silicon (mono-Si), multi-crystalline silicon (multi-Si), amorphous silicon (a-Si) and cadmium telluride (CdTe) energy technologies, based on ReCiPe life cycle impact assessment method. LCA is the most powerful environmental impact assessment tool from a product perspective and ReCiPe is one of the most advanced LCA methodologies with the broadest set of mid-point impact categories. More importantly, ReCiPe combines the strengths of both mid-point-based life cycle impact assessment approach of CML-IA, and end-point-based approach of Eco-indicator 99 methods. Accordingly, the LCA results of all four solar PV technologies have been evaluated and compared based on 18 mid-point impact indicators (viz., climate change, ozone depletion, terrestrial acidification, freshwater eutrophication, marine eutrophication, human toxicity, photochemical oxidant formation, particulate matter formation, terrestrial ecotoxicity, freshwater ecotoxicity, marine ecotoxicity, ionising radiation, agricultural land occupation, urban land occupation, natural land transformation, water depletion, metal depletion and fossil depletion), 3 end-point/damage indicators (viz., human health, ecosystems and cost increases in resource extraction) and a unified single score. The overall study has been conducted based on hierarchist perspective and according to the relevant ISO standards. Final results show that the CdTe thin-film solar plant carries the least environmental life cycle impact within the four PV technologies, sequentially followed by multi-Si, a-Si and mono-Si technology.
Color is a major attraction component of any fabric regardless of how admirable its constitution. Industrial production and utilization of synthetic dyestuffs for textile dyeing have consequently become a gigantic industry today. Synthetic dyestuffs have introduced a broad range of colorfastness and bright hues. Nonetheless, their toxic character has become a reason of serious concern to the environment. Usage of synthetic dyestuffs has adverse impacts on all forms of life. Existence of naphthol, vat dyestuffs, nitrates, acetic acid, soaping chemicals, enzymatic substrates, chromium-based materials, and heavy metals as well as other dyeing auxiliaries, makes the textile dyeing water effluent extremely toxic. Other hazardous chemicals include formaldehyde-based color fixing auxiliaries, chlorine-based stain removers, hydrocarbon-based softeners, and other non-biodegradable dyeing auxiliaries. The colloidal material existing alongside commercial colorants and oily froth raises the turbidity resulting in bad appearance and unpleasant odor of water. Furthermore, such turbidity will block the diffusion of sunlight required for the process of photosynthesis which in turn is interfering with marine life. This effluent may also result in clogging the pores of the soil leading to loss of soil productivity. Therefore, it has been critical for innovations, environmentally friendly remediation technologies, and alternative eco-systems to be explored for textile dyeing industry. Different eco-systems have been explored such as biocolors, natural mordants, and supercritical carbon-dioxide assisted waterless dyeing. Herein, we explore the different types of dyeing processes, water consumption, pollution, treatment, and exploration of eco-systems in textile dyeing industry.
PurposeLife cycle impact assessment (LCIA) translates emissions and resource extractions into a limited number of environmental impact scores by means of so-called characterisation factors. There are two mainstream ways to derive characterisation factors, i.e. at midpoint level and at endpoint level. To further progress LCIA method development, we updated the ReCiPe2008 method to its version of 2016. This paper provides an overview of the key elements of the ReCiPe2016 method. Methods
We implemented human health, ecosystem quality and resource scarcity as three areas of protection. Endpoint characterisation factors, directly related to the areas of protection, were derived from midpoint characterisation factors with a constant mid-to-endpoint factor per impact category. We included 17 midpoint impact categories. Results and discussionThe update of ReCiPe provides characterisation factors that are representative for the global scale instead of the European scale, while maintaining the possibility for a number of impact categories to implement characterisation factors at a country and continental scale. We also expanded the number of environmental interventions and added impacts of water use on human health, impacts of water use and climate change on freshwater ecosystems and impacts of water use and tropospheric ozone formation on terrestrial ecosystems as novel damage pathways. Although significant effort has been put into the update of ReCiPe, there is still major improvement potential in the way impact pathways are modelled. Further improvements relate to a regionalisation of more impact categories, moving from local to global species extinction and adding more impact pathways. Conclusions
Life cycle impact assessment is a fast evolving field of research. ReCiPe2016 provides a state-of-the-art method to convert life cycle inventories to a limited number of life cycle impact scores on midpoint and endpoint level.
This chapter serves as an introduction to the presentation of the many aspects of life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) in this volume of the book series ‘LCA Compendium’. It starts with a brief historical overview of the development of life cycle impact assessment driven by numerous national LCIA methodology projects and presents the international scientific discussions and methodological consensus attempts in consecutive working groups under the auspices of the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC) as well as the UNEP/SETAC Life Cycle Initiative, and the (almost) parallel standardisation activities under the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO). A brief introduction is given on the purpose and structure of LCIA. As a common background for the 11 chapters dealing with the characterisation modelling of the most common impact categories, the chapter concludes with an introduction of the general principles and features of characterisation.
Monetary valuation is the practice of converting measures of social and biophysical impacts into monetary units and is used to determine the economic value of non-market goods, i.e. goods for which no market exists. It is applied in cost benefit analysis to enable the cross-comparison between different impacts and/or with other economic costs and benefits. For this reason, monetary valuation has a great potential to be applied also in Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), especially in the weighting phase. However, several challenges limit its diffusion in the field, which resulted in only a few applications so far. The authors have performed a review of different monetary valuation methods for use in LCA. Firstly, monetary valuation approaches, methods, and LCA applications were identified. Secondly, key features and the strengths and weaknesses of each monetary valuation method were determined. Finally, monetary valuation methods and LCA applications were evaluated according to a comprehensive set of criteria, ranging from scientific foundation to uncertainty and complexity. It was found that observed- and revealed-preference methods and the abatement cost method have limited applicability in LCA, whereas the choice experiment method and the budget constraint method are the best options for monetary valuation in LCA.
Sustainable housing is receiving increasing attention by policy makers, architects, consumers and scholars. This study aims at enhancing our knowledge on the environmental impact of sustainable houses by performing a Life Cycle Assessment on a single case study. The case study is performed on a single low-energy building containing 19 flats using the Eco-indicator’99 method.The results indicate that the choice of insulating materials has a significant impact on the eco-score of the design. The materials’ production turns out to be by far the most influential, which bears the consequence that architects and consumers should focus on choosing the best materials in terms of eco-score instead of focusing on an environmental-friendly design. Waste recycling (if possible) has a lower eco-score compared to waste disposal (dumping or burning).
This study aims to assess the environmental footprint of the increasing share of renewable energy and global energy demand. The considered footprints, including GHG emission, NO x emission, SO 2 emission and water consumption, are expressed in eco-cost. The assessment indicated that the eco-cost of global energy consumption increased, comparing 2009 (1.66 x 10 12 EUR) and 2019 (2.06 x 10 12 EUR). This suggests the increasing energy demand (+ 33 %) dominates the positive effect of the renewable energy transition. A significant reduction (≥ ~38 %-52 %) on the dependency of nonrenewable energy is required to offset the effect of increasing global demand in 2050 without a substantial increase in eco-cost than 2009 and 2019. However, when referring to the European Union case, it was decreased where 2.05 x 10 11 EUR in 2009 and 1.65 x 10 11 EUR in 2019. It is progressing towards environmental footprint mitigation, provided by the marginal increase in energy demand (+ 0.4 %) and an increase in renewable energy share. The analysis could serve as a guideline for appropriate policy implications towards a sustainable energy system.
The dyeing process contributes most to the water consumption and wastewater emission associated with the textile industry, leading to water depletion and degradation. The water footprint is an effective concept for evaluating the environmental impact of textile production processes on water bodies, and serves as a reference for practitioners seeking to develop suitable water management strategies. Water degradation can be quantified in terms of several sub-indicators, such as aquatic eutrophication, acidification, and ecotoxicity. However, some processes (such as the production of viscose fiber and dyeing) produce significant quantities of alkaline wastewater that can alkalize the receiving water bodies. In this study, we proposed the concept of water alkalization footprint to assess the potential impact of water alkalization caused by textile production. To achieve this, we constructed an evaluation framework and calculated the relevant characterization factors by considering the mechanisms of chemical reaction. A dyeing mill was selected as a case study to demonstrate the feasibility of the concept. The results indicate that the dyeing of 1 ton of viscose fabric produces a water alkalization footprint of 15.478 kg OH- equiv, and that NaOH in the wastewater from the desizing and dyeing phases was the largest contributor at 97.23%.
The Eco-Indicator 99 (EI99) method and the ReCiPe method are used to determine the fundamental uncertainties in the life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) model through the configurations of the following six methodological options: egalitarian/egalitarian (e/e), egalitarian/average (e/a), hierarchist/hierarchist (h/h), hierarchist/average (h/a), individualist/individualist (i/i), and individualist/average (i/a). In this study, the aforementioned options were presented as (i) a set of methodological options with their particular weighting set (e/e, h/h, and i/i) and (ii) a set of methodological options with the average weighting set (e/a, h/a, and i/a), thereby creating a hierarchical design of both the EI99 and ReCiPe methods. The first goal of this study is to provide the appropriate statistical test as a supplemental method to EI99 and ReCiPe for the evaluation of the different environmental damage caused by four building technologies. The second goal is to compare the two damage oriented methods of EI99 and ReCiPe when the same building technologies are compared. Two-stage nested mixed ANOVA rather than a t-test is recommended as a supplemental method in both evaluations of EI99 and ReCiPe due the hierarchical structure of the methodological options. ReCiPe rather than EI99 is suggested as a damage oriented method of building technologies due to its extended list of impacts of the ecosystems damage category and its accounting for more reliable cost parameters in the resources damage category instead of the vague supplement of the energy requirement in a distant future that is applied in EI99.
The environmental impact of textile supply chain of selected cotton, wool and polyester apparels consumed in Australia was accessed in this study using life cycle assessment methodology. The environmental impact category, climate change was used for this assessment. Climate change is related to the emissions of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere and the reference unit of climate change impact category is kg CO2 equivalent. The environmental impact of these apparels was then scaled up based on their total consumption in Australia in 2015. The results highlight the differences in environmental impact between the three apparels. This study demonstrates that the main contributor to climate change is the consumer use stage for cotton and polyester apparel whereas wool apparel production process contributes more impact than consumer use stage. Energy use is the main factor of environmental impact. Sensitivity analysis was carried out based on the different parameters used to develop baseline model, such as change of transport from airfreight to sea freight; change of transport distance, change of consumer laundering behaviour. Around 10% CO2 equivalent emission can be reduced from base case by reducing washing machine energy up to 40%. A high efficient washing machine and full load machine wash can save energy and reduce carbon emission.
In incremental eco-design improvements, design engineers attempt to modify an existing product via some eco-design measures to reduce the product’s environmental impacts (e.g. reduction of material usage and energy consumption). In this process, several design concepts can be proposed, and concept selection is required to allocate resources sensibly to promising design concepts only. In this context, the research purpose is to estimate the environmental impacts of each concept given the uncertainty of design information. In the proposed methodology, the fuzzy interval arithmetic is used to specify and propagate imprecise design information. Then, the centroid concept is applied to model different views of imprecision (i.e. pessimistic, balanced and optimistic) associated with fuzzy impact assessment. Accordingly, a decision scheme is developed to support concept selection and suggest the potential areas for further eco-design improvements. A coffee maker is used as an example to demonstrate the proposed methodology. Also, the Monte Carlo Simulation is applied for the same example to compare the numerical outcomes by the fuzzy interval approach.
Life cycle assessment (LCA) is used to evaluate the environmental impacts of textile products, from raw material extraction, through fibre processing, textile manufacture, distribution and use, to disposal or recycling. LCA is an important tool for the research and development process, product and process design, and labelling of textiles and clothing. Handbook of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of Textiles and Clothing systematically covers the LCA process with comprehensive examples and case studies. Part one of the book covers key indicators and processes in LCA, from carbon and ecological footprints to disposal, re-use and recycling. Part two then discusses a broad range of LCA applications in the textiles and clothing industry.
The textile industry impacts the environment in a number of ways, including its use of resources, its impact on global warming, and the amount of pollution and waste it generates. Assessing the Environmental Impact of Textiles and the Clothing Supply Chain reviews methods used to calculate this environmental impact, including product carbon footprints (PCFs), ecological footprints (EFs), and life cycle assessment (LCA). The first chapters provide an introduction to the textile supply chain and its environmental impact, and an overview of the methods used to measure this impact. The book goes on to consider different environmental impacts of the industry, including greenhouse gas emissions, the water and energy footprints of the industry, and depletion of resources, as well as the use of LCA to assess the overall environmental impact of the textile industry. It then deals with the practice of measuring these impacts before forming a conclusion about the environmental impact of the industry. Assessing the Environmental Impact of Textiles and the Clothing Supply Chain provides a standard reference for R&D managers in the textile industry and academic researchers in textile science. Reviews the main methods used to calculate the textile industry's use of resources, its impact on global warming and the pollution and waste it generates Reviews the key methods, their principles and how they can be applied in practice to measure and reduce the environmental impact of textile products Includes the following calculation methods: product carbon footprints (PCFs), ecological footprints (EFs) and life cycle assessment (LCA).
The primary advantage offered by the Eco-indicator 99 (EI99) methodology is its ability to consider life cycle assessment (LCA) uncertainties. EI99 considers these uncertainties through a perspective-specified set that includes egalitarian/egalitarian (e/e), hierarchist/hierarchist (h/h), and individualist/individualist (i/i) methodological options, along with a perspective-averaged set that includes individualist/average (i/a), egalitarian/average (e/a), and hierarchist/average (h/a) methodological options. These two sets of options are based on a cultural theory framework that was initially intended for different areas of interest. The objective of this study was to determine the robustness of EI99 for the environmental evaluation of building technologies under LCA uncertainties. A split-unit design was used to determine the robustness of EI99 for evaluating four reinforced concrete technologies and four masonry structure technologies. A significant disordinal interaction was observed between the two methodological sets evaluated by EI99. The h/h and h/a options were considered to fall within the same area of interest. Different rankings for the building technologies were obtained using the different EI99 methodological options. A full set of EI99 methodological options should be used by building designers and practitioners to determine the impact of a preferred decision on the initial construction cost, the life-cycle cost, the embodied energy, occupant health, and resource and/or habitat conservation.
Purpose
China is the largest producer of textile-dyeing products in the world. The production of these materials consumes high amounts of water and energy and results in the discharge of huge amounts of pollutants. This study aimed at evaluating the life-cycle environmental impacts of the textile-dyeing industry and determining the key processes for mitigating life-cycle environmental impacts efficiently and effectively, which will benefit the application of cleaner production technologies.
Methods
A life-cycle assessment was performed according to the ISO 14040 standard series. The system investigated includes the dyeing process and final disposal and the transportation of raw material, energy production, and transportation. The functional unit is 10,000 m of cotton fabric, which weighs 2,000 kg. Our study encompasses three types of data. The data regarding the production process and the major raw materials, necessary energy, and the source of the energy, as well as the emissions of some pollutants, were provided by a textile-dyeing enterprise in Jiangsu Province. The data regarding transport were generated using the GaBi version 4.3 database. Some emission factor data such as those on CO2, CH4, and N2O emissions were obtained from the literature. Resources, energy consumption, and emissions are quantified, and some of the potential environmental effects were evaluated using the CML2001 method built into the GaBi version 4.3 database.
Results and discussion
Scouring and oxygen bleaching, dyeing, stentering and setting, wastewater treatment, and incineration are the key processes in terms of global warming potential, acidification potential, photochemical ozone creation potential, and eutrophication potential. It will therefore be useful to enhance the recycling of water, control the consumption of additives and dyes, and conserve energy as much as possible. Through scenario analysis, we note that motorized shipment should be used instead of shipment by trucks, when conditions permit.
Conclusions
To promote energy conservation and the clean production of continuous pad-dyeing technology for cotton fabrics, other environmental impact categories besides the impact of the water system should be given focus. Additional work can be performed on the following: considering a consumption-based perspective of the entire process, uncertainty in data on life-cycle inventory, the evaluation methodology employed, temporal and spatial variation, the normalized toxicity of dyes and additives, and weighting methods.
Purpose
The main objective of this study is to expand the discussion about how, and to what extent, the environmental performance is affected by the use of different life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) illustrated by the case study of the comparison between environmental impacts of gasoline and ethanol form sugarcane in Brazil.
Methods
The following LCIA methods have been considered in the evaluation: CML 2001, Impact 2002+, EDIP 2003, Eco-indicator 99, TRACI 2, ReCiPe, and Ecological Scarcity 2006. Energy allocation was used to split the environmental burdens between ethanol and surplus electricity generated at the sugarcane mill. The phases of feedstock and (bio)fuel production, distribution, and use are included in system boundaries.
Results and discussion
At the midpoint level, comparison of different LCIA methods showed that ethanol presents lower impacts than gasoline in important categories such as global warming, fossil depletion, and ozone layer depletion. However, ethanol presents higher impacts in acidification, eutrophication, photochemical oxidation, and agricultural land use categories. Regarding to single-score indicators, ethanol presented better performance than gasoline using ReCiPe Endpoint LCIA method. Using IMPACT 2002+, Eco-indicator 99, and Ecological Scarcity 2006, higher scores are verified for ethanol, mainly due to the impacts related to particulate emissions and land use impacts.
Conclusions
Although there is a relative agreement on the results regarding equivalent environmental impact categories using different LCIA methods at midpoint level, when single-score indicators are considered, use of different LCIA methods lead to different conclusions. Single-score results also limit the interpretability at endpoint level, as a consequence of small contributions of relevant environmental impact categories weighted in a single-score indicator.
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