A Comprehensive Methodology to Support Decision-Making Towards Sustainability on Nanocomposite Materials in Additive Manufacturing Sector

2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Foteini Petrakli ◽  
Anastasia Gkika ◽  
Anestis Vlysidis ◽  
Panagiotis Karayannis ◽  
Elias Koumoulos
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Additive Manufacturing ◽  
Environmental Impact ◽  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Action Plan ◽  
Nanocomposite Materials ◽  
Design Stage ◽  
Scale Production ◽  
Support Tool ◽  
Different Types

Abstract Innovative nanocomposite materials and resultant additive manufacturing products are necessary to be assessed for their carbon footprint towards top priorities of EU for plastics, including the European Green Deal principles and the Action Plan for Circular Economy. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is widely applied standardized methodology that aims to study potential environmental impacts of novel products. Nano-scale materials (NM) are usually dispersed in polymer to enhance their limited functional properties resulting in a spectrum of end-products for multiple applications. However, little information exists on their environmental impact. Within this context, this study presents a ‘cradle-to-gate plus end-of-life’ LCA approach, studying different types of 3D printing nanocomposite filaments across the supply chain. Three different types of polymer matrixes were examined: polyamide (PA), polypropylene (PP) and polylactic acid (PLA), additivated with three different types of nanomaterial additives: multiwall carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs), graphene oxide (GO) forms and graphene nanoplatelets (GNPs), considering lab-scale production. In addition, several different EoL scenarios have been examined for the materials. Finally, LCA findings are coupled with the performance (taken here as conductivity) of these new materials to assist the decision-making process for selecting efficient scenarios with the least environmental impact. The outputs of this examination enable identification of potential sustainability issues for novel nanocomposite materials at an early design stage, while also assisting in the definition of actions to mitigate such issues. Thus, LCA studies can generate knowledge on the environmental impacts of nano-enabled materials, while also serving as a valuable decision support tool towards optimizing material sustainability aspects.

The Function-Based Design for Sustainability Method

2017 ◽  
Vol 139 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ryan Arlitt ◽  
Douglas L. Van Bossuyt ◽  
Rob B. Stone ◽  
Irem Y. Tumer
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Environmental Impact ◽  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Comparative Case Study ◽  
Design Stage ◽  
Sustainable Products ◽  
Design For Sustainability ◽  
Component Design ◽  
Alternative Function

Over the last two decades, consumers have become increasingly aware and desiring of sustainable products. However, little attention has been paid to developing conceptual design methods that explicitly take into account environmental impact. This paper contributes a method of automated function component generation, and guided down-selection and decision-making based upon environmental impact. The environmental impact of functions has been calculated for 17 of the products found in the Design Repository using ReCiPe scoring in SimaPRO. A hierarchical Bayesian approach is used to estimate the potential environmental impacts of specific functions when realized into components. Previously, product environmental impacts were calculated after a product was developed to the component design stage. The method developed in this paper could be used to provide a criticality ranking based on which functional solutions historically have the greatest risk of causing high environmental impact. The method is demonstrated using a simple clock system as an example. A comparative case study of two phone chargers for use in third-world countries demonstrates the decision-making capabilities of this method, and shows that it is possible to compare the environmental impact of alternative function structures during the conceptual stage of design. With the method presented in this paper, it is now possible to make early functional modeling design decisions specifically taking into account historical environmental impact of functionally similar products.

scholarly journals New approach to decision making by multiple criteria analysis

2018 ◽  
Vol 146 ◽  
pp. 01002 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tomas Vanicek ◽  
Jana Kucerova
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Multiple Criteria Decision Making ◽  
Decision Support Tool ◽  
Decision Processes ◽  
Multiple Criteria ◽  
New Approach ◽  
Support Tool ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Multiple Criteria Evaluation

Many decision processes in technical and economical sciences require multiple criteria decision making. The most widely applied methods for multiple criteria evaluation of alternatives are based on the evaluation of alternatives in terms of an additive preference function. All of them require the estimation of weights of usually conflicting criteria. There are several methods how to find the weights of the criteria and how to find the evaluation of each solution in each criterion. The decision process based on simple weighted sum of values may not be the best approach in all situations. This paper contains a new approach of the evaluation of measured value set by different mathematical operators than the usually used multiple criteria evaluation methods. The approach was applied in a case study for multiple criteria evaluation. Generally, this new decision-support tool can help in various situations where different types of effects caused by a construction or reconstruction can occur. This is a very frequent situation in dealing with building defects, too.

Probabilistic Pareto Decision Making Framework for Sustainable Packaging Life Cycle Assessment

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Huihui Qi ◽  
Euihark Lee ◽  
Hae Chang Gea ◽  
Bin Zheng
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Environmental Impact ◽  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Impact Factors ◽  
Package Design ◽  
Sustainable Packaging ◽  
Decision Making Framework ◽  
Design Options

The Packaging industry is one of the largest industries in the world and is associated with many environmental concerns. To reduce its environmental impacts, designing sustainable packaging has been one of the top priorities in packaging industries. A common tools for evaluating the environmental impact of a package design is the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) which provides information on environmental impacts for different indicators. However, making decisions based on the LCA results leaves us with major challenges. First, the LCA tools should consider various uncertainties such as measurement and data quality. Second, the LCA may give conflicting results on different environmental impact factors. To address these issues, a ranking based decision making framework is proposed in this paper. Within this framework a Probabilistic Pareto Selection method is introduced to select the Pareto Front with uncertainty first. Then, the Ranking based Rate of Substitution is implemented in the decision making process in order to select the best design options based on the trade-off of each Pareto design. Tow case studies are presented to demonstrate the functionality of this framework.

scholarly journals Assessing costs and environmental impacts of municipal food waste treatment options in Columbia, Missouri : a decision support tool integrating life cycle analysis and robust optimization

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Lydia Schreiber
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
Anaerobic Digestion ◽  
Environmental Impact ◽  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Animal Feed ◽  
Treatment Options ◽  
Ghg Emissions ◽  
Average Case ◽  
Support Tool ◽  
Feed Production

Many municipal governments currently have goals in place to align with global efforts and policy to reduce greenhouse gas (GHGs) emissions and take advantage of waste as a resource for renewable energy and nutrients. To meet specified goals and targets, decisionmakers need data-driven analysis to understand both the costs and environmental impacts of their plans. This study develops a decision support tool applied in Columbia, Missouri, USA, with aims to model the economic and environmental tradeoffs in solid waste management decisions for the collection and treatment of food waste in the municipal solid waste stream while considering existing infrastructure and uncertainty in environmental impact data. The tool uses life cycle analysis environmental impact data from literature and cost data from case-studies to simulate both a FW collection route and the processing of FW through various potential and existing treatment options (anaerobic digestion, anaerobic co-digestion with sewage sludge, composting, landfilling, dry animal feed production, wet animal feed production). The model calculates the cost and greenhouse gas emissions of the transportation and treatment processes in each simulation. The tool can choose the best FW management scenario for the objective of minimizing cost or minimizing GHG emissions. Robust optimization incorporates uncertainty into the model by allowing environmental impacts for any FW treatment option to assume a maximum or minimum of a range of values from literature, representing the worst- and best-case values for environmental performance, respectively. Average case results indicate that a minimum cost scenario uses a combination of landfilling and composting FW that results in net positive GHG emissions. To minimize environmental impact, the average case results favor anaerobic digestion, a scenario which results in net negative GHG emissions. Compared to the minimum cost scenario, the transportation costs in the minimum impact scenario are similar, while the costs to treat the FW are nearly nine times higher. Robust results focus on variability in environmental impacts. In the model results, anaerobic digestion is favored when assuming its minimum environmental impact value but is outperformed by other options when anaerobic digestion assumes the maximum of its possible range. All considered options outperform landfilling, but the rankings among landfilling alternatives depend highly on assumptions regarding offsets estimated in life cycle assessment. Without any offsets, wet animal feed production is the best FW treatment solution. Environmental impact of transportation in this model is not influential. The results demonstrate the importance of model assumptions, uncertainty in life cycle GHG estimates, and consideration of existing infrastructure in determining the optimal scenarios.

The significance of Environmental Agencies in the Environmental Impact Assessment process

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Environmental Impact ◽  
Environmental Monitoring ◽  
Impact Assessment ◽  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Environmental Impact Assessment ◽  
Political Development ◽  
Assessment Process ◽  
Entire Society ◽  
Environmental Agencies

Currently, every country is striving to realize development for its people. Thus, to achieve this the construction of various projects are necessary for the realization of socioeconomic and political development of any country. However, the development of the projects is associated with various environmental challenges that may affect the entire society and the environment. Thus, to cater that there is the need for conducting Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) that is a tool used to identify the environmental, social and economic impacts of a project before decision-making. To achieve the EIA process, there are Environmental Agencies (EAs) that are designed for dealing with all environment-related issues in the relevant country. Thus, this paper aims at providing the key significances provided by the EAs in the EIA process. The following significances are discussed in this paper: formulation of policies, laws and regulations related to EIA; authorization and certification of the experts or firms of expert for EIA process; registration and screening of the projects for EIA; reviewing Environmental Impacts Statements or reports; preparation of the EIA certificates for approval or disapproval of the projects; conducting environmental monitoring and auditing; and monitoring of the implementation of the decommissioning.

scholarly journals An Analysis of the Environmental Impact Management of Tingal Irrigation Scheme in Temanggung Regency

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 364-383
Author(s):  
Widodo Brontowiyono
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Impact ◽  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Environmental Conditions ◽  
Project Development ◽  
Irrigation Scheme ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Development And Management

A study of the environmental impacts of Tingal Irrigation Scheme should be conducted to derive maximum benefits from the project development and management. This research aimed to identify the pre-existing environmental conditions, describe the expected potential impacts, and recommend some methods to manage and monitor the impacts. The analysis results indicated that the pre-existing environmental conditions of the study area were generally good, different types of impacts potentially arose from each stage of the development, and each type of impacts required specific, detailed management and monitoring.

scholarly journals Life cycle assessment and possible impacts of CFRPs for space applications

2019 ◽  
Vol 304 ◽  
pp. 07006 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ioannis Xiarchos ◽  
Athanasios K. Morozinis ◽  
Costas Charitidis
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Environmental Impact ◽  
Epoxy Resin ◽  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
High Energy ◽  
Design Stage ◽  
Carbon Fibres ◽  
Space Applications ◽  
Technology Application

Life-cycle assessment, or LCA, is an environmental management technique that considers all the aspects of resources use and environmental releases associated with an industrial product, service or a system. LCA is intended for comparison and not absolute evaluation, in this way assisting decision makers when choosing between alternative courses of action. In Space applications, LCA is used to evaluate environmental impacts from early research & design stage to the mission end according to United Nations General Assembly declaration for the need of development of Space Technologies that minimize the environmental impact. More specifically, in the frame of SpaceCarbon project, preliminary research design laboratory activities have been studied by the Life Cycle Assessment technique and environmental impact hotspots were identified, mainly the use of carbon fibres and epoxy resin which affect mainly “climate” and “resources” environmental damage categories. This is explained by the high energy intensity of carbon fibres production, petrochemical origin of carbon fibre preform, epoxy resin toxicity and related emissions (NOx, SO2). It is worth pointing out though, that weight reduction and related energy savings (e.g. reduction of fuels consumption), longevity of space technology application in the use phase are beneficial for the environmental impacts minimization.

scholarly journals Evaluation of Anti-Icing/De-Icing Products Under Controlled Environmental Conditions

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yi Ji ◽  
Bob McCullouch ◽  
Zhi Zhou
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Environmental Impact ◽  
Assessment Tool ◽  
Winter Season ◽  
Decision Support Tool ◽  
Support Tool ◽  
Winter Operation ◽  
Support Decision Making

Snow and ice removal are important tasks during the winter season and large amounts of anti-icing and de-icing chemicals are used and there is a critical need to review and synthesize information from the literature to compare and contrast anti-icing and de-icing chemicals to understand their environmental impact and support decision making. The effectiveness, costs, and environmental impact of commonly used and alternative anti-icing and de-icing chemicals were reviewed in this study. Application of anti-icing and de-icing chemicals may increase ion concentrations in soils and change nitrogen cycle, soil pH, and trace metal concentrations, affect surface water and groundwater, and increase public health risks. Life cycle assessment was conducted to quantitively evaluate environmental impact of selected anti-icing and de-icing chemicals. A decision support tool on environmental impact was developed to evaluate environmental impact of anti-icing and de-icing chemicals in ten different environmental impact categories. The results showed the environmental life cycle assessment tool developed in this study can be used to compare multiple environment impacts to support decision making for winter operation chemicals.

scholarly journals A Multi-Criteria Decision-Making Approach to Evaluate Different UVC/H2O2 Systems in Wastewater Treatment

Processes ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (12) ◽  
pp. 2252
Author(s):  
Isadora Luiza Climaco Cunha ◽  
Jose Geraldo Vidal Vieira ◽  
Luiz Kulay
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Degradation Rate ◽  
Industrial Applications ◽  
Design Stage ◽  
Multi Criteria Decision Making ◽  
Treatment Technology ◽  
Pseudo First Order Reaction ◽  
Experimental Conditions ◽  
Degradation Rates

High azoxystrobin (AZO), difenoconazole (DFZ), and imidacloprid (IMD) pesticide removal rates in sixteen bench-scale experiments concerning tomato washing water treatment were obtained through a UVC/H2O2 advanced oxidative process. Experimental conditions ([H2O2]0) and irradiance (EUVC) were optimized for higher degradation rates (pseudo-first-order reaction). To consider both economic aspects and environmental impacts when defining the treatment technology, as well as technological requirements, this study applied a multi-criteria decision-making method (MCDM) to assess and differentiate similar UVC/H2O2 process configurations. This allowed for the identification of the cheapest experimental arrangement with the lowest associated environmental impacts, coupled to the highest degradation rate (kIMD). After consulting experts to determine the importance of the applied criteria and measuring alternative performances, experiment E7 ([H2O2]0 = 43.5 mg L−1; EUVC = 15.0 W m−2; kIMD = 0.236 s−1) was determined as meeting the three criteria in a balanced manner. Although E7′s technological performance regarding degradation rate did not achieve the best individual result, it presented the lowest impacts and costs among the analyzed series, although alternatives are sensitive to decision-maker priorities. This study considered different factors of a process displaying potential industrial applications still in the design stage to achieve a more efficient and balanced solution.

Quota Women Are Threatening to Men

2017 ◽  
Vol 76 (3) ◽  
pp. 107-116 ◽  
Author(s):  
Klea Faniko ◽  
Till Burckhardt ◽  
Oriane Sarrasin ◽  
Fabio Lorenzi-Cioldi ◽  
Siri Øyslebø Sørensen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Organizational Performance ◽  
Gender Stereotypes ◽  
Perceived Threat ◽  
Preferential Treatment ◽  
Public Sector Employees ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Low Levels ◽  
Women In Decision Making ◽  
The Impact

Abstract. Two studies carried out among Albanian public-sector employees examined the impact of different types of affirmative action policies (AAPs) on (counter)stereotypical perceptions of women in decision-making positions. Study 1 (N = 178) revealed that participants – especially women – perceived women in decision-making positions as more masculine (i.e., agentic) than feminine (i.e., communal). Study 2 (N = 239) showed that different types of AA had different effects on the attribution of gender stereotypes to AAP beneficiaries: Women benefiting from a quota policy were perceived as being more communal than agentic, while those benefiting from weak preferential treatment were perceived as being more agentic than communal. Furthermore, we examined how the belief that AAPs threaten men’s access to decision-making positions influenced the attribution of these traits to AAP beneficiaries. The results showed that men who reported high levels of perceived threat, as compared to men who reported low levels of perceived threat, attributed more communal than agentic traits to the beneficiaries of quotas. These findings suggest that AAPs may have created a backlash against its beneficiaries by emphasizing gender-stereotypical or counterstereotypical traits. Thus, the framing of AAPs, for instance, as a matter of enhancing organizational performance, in the process of policy making and implementation, may be a crucial tool to countering potential backlash.

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