The building sector is responsible for a third of the global energy consumption and a quarter of greenhouse gas emissions. Phase change materials (PCMs) have shown high potential for latent thermal energy storage (LTES) through their integration in building materials, with the aim of enhancing the efficient use of energy. Although research on PCMs began decades ago, this technology is still far from being widespread. This work analyses the main contributions to the employment of PCMs in the building sector, to better understand the motivations behind the restricted employment of PCM-based LTES technologies. The main research and review studies are critically discussed, focusing on: strategies used to regulate indoor thermal conditions, the variation of mechanical properties in PCMs-based mortars and cements, and applications with ground-coupled heat pumps. The employment of materials obtained from wastes and natural sources was also taken in account as a possible key to developing composite materials with good performance and sustainability at the same time. As a result, the integration of PCMs in LTES is still in its early stages, but reveals high potential for employment in the building sector, thanks to the continuous design improvement and optimization driven by high-performance materials and a new way of coupling with tailored envelopes.

Forced by environmental implications and by legislation requirements, the cement sector is moving towards more circular economy practices, with the primary aim to enhance the sector sustainability. This commitment translates into product technology innovation, but also into innovative development perspectives for the industries involved in the supply chain. Moreover, dealing with recycled materials can modify the interaction among stakeholders from a conventional supply chain to an industrial symbiosis approach, where companies mutually exchange products and by-products into circular interactions. The purpose of this article is to investigate the circularity performances deriving from the production of a cement mortar reinforced with recycled synthetic fibers coming from artificial turf carpets. From the collection of artificial turf carpets at the end-of-life stage it is possible to recover several materials: plastic fibers used in the cement mortar, and in addition, silica sand, rubber, and bituminous membrane. The production of the innovative reinforced cement mortar leads to the connection between industries belonging to different sectors and consequently to uneven economic and environmental implications. Starting from the available literature, this study aims at evaluating the circularity potential of the unusual interactions among companies to support the development of an effective strategy, reducing environmental and economic pressures.

Micro-plastics pollution has risen at an alarming pace over the last decades and it is now recognised as a leading environmental emergency. Indeed, only a very small fraction of annual plastic production is successfully reused, while the vast majority is either disposed of (mainly through incineration or landfilling) or dispersed into the environment. In this paper, polyolefins synthetic fibres, obtained from processing disposed artificial turf pitches aimed at paving sport facilities, are studied. Focus is set on assessing their potential for the Fibre Reinforced Concrete (FRC) technology. Mechanical performance is discussed at two fibre volume fractions, namely 3% and 5% vol., alongside environmental impact. The former is assessed in bending and reveals a significant enhancement of the post-crack energy dissipation capability, whose extent is compatible with what is usually obtained by the adoption of virgin fibres. This is especially significant in consideration of the light processing operated on the waste material. Indeed, life cycle assessment is adopted to evaluate the environmental impact of fibre reuse against fibre manufacturing from either virgin materials or plastic waste. It clearly appears that fibre reuse brings a double environmental benefit: on the one side, it decreases the need for new plastics and, on the other, it reduces plastic waste, whose traditional disposal technique, through incineration, entails a considerable footprint.

In this study two phase change materials (PCMs) mixed with sand were evaluated for distributed latent heat thermal energy storage (LHTES) coupled with a novel Flat-Panel ground heat exchanger (GHE) for shallow geothermal applications. N-Octadecane and a commercial paraffin-based PCM were mixed (30% v/v) separately with sand, which is commonly used as backlilling material for GHE. Both two mixtures underwent 16 thermal cycles and specimen's temperatures and their variation over time were analyzed to evaluate phase change stability and supercooling. Grain size laser diffraction and pore analysis were performed together with optical microscopy, environmental scanning electron microscopy coupled with X-Ray spectrometry (ESEM-EDS) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) analysis to evaluate PCMs-sand dynamic interaction over time and temperature. Results shown that sand addition halves n-Octadecane phase change time, although leading to a limited supercooling equal to 1 degrees C. Sand addition to commercial PCM leaded to a similar increasing in heat transfer, however in absence of supercooling phenomena. These performances were constant through 16 thermal cycles. Therefore, PCMs mixing in sand as mixture for GHEs backlilling material can be considered a strategy to enhance thermal storage of backlilling material, by increasing the underground thermal energy storage and then the exploitation carried out by shallow geothermal applications. (C) 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Life Cycle Assessment quantifies the multi-dimensional impact of goods and services and can be handled by Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis. In Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis, Robust Ordinal Regression manages all the compatible preference functions at once when assessing a set of alternatives and a group of preferences on reference alternatives. Robust Ordinal Regression is thus a versatile method of reducing the cognitive effort required by decision makers for eliciting their preference structures in Life Cycle Assessment, although it does not directly operate on noisy alternatives and requires Stochastic Multicriteria Acceptability Analysis to deal with such scenarios. We propose integrating a dimensionality reduction technique, Principal Component Analysis, and Robust Ordinal Regression methods, to reduce the problem dimensionality and ensure the actual problem features are considered. A generated dataset, a dataset from literature and a Life Cycle Assessment case study are used to test the effectiveness of the proposed methods.

Buildings have a central role to play in the energy transition driven by the European Commission with the introduction of the nearly zero-energy buildings notion for both new constructions and existing building stocks. Despite the growing interest in improving the energy performance of residential as well as office buildings, a research gap is identified in the field of the renovation of industrial buildings and facilities in terms of energy efficiency. A lack is recognized in terms of analysing the improvement of the work environment in all the areas that are not used as offices. Common decarbonisation strategies are usually adopted, as the electrification of some processes, the replacement of obsolete machinery or the implementation of renewable energy sources. However, reaching the ambitious levels set by the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive which aims at nearly zero-energy buildings, remains a challenge. The present paper aims to analyse the main barriers that hamper the development of highly energy efficient and decarbonised buildings in the productive sector and the effective deep energy renovations of industrial facilities. Moreover, it intends to highlight alternative strategies and opportunities and to underline potential benefits.

In recent times, the construction industry has been handling circular economy strategies in order to face the most important challenges in the sector, namely the lack of raw materials and the environmental impacts derived from all the processes linked to the entire supply chain. The industrial symbiosis approach represents an effective strategy to improve the circularity of the construction industry. This study analyses the circularity performance of an emerging industrial symbiosis network derived from the production of a cement mortar reinforced with recycled synthetic fibers coming from artificial turf carpets. From the collection of artificial turf carpets at the end-of-life stage it is possible to recover several materials, leading to potential unusual interactions between industries belonging to different sectors. A suitable indicator, retrieved from the literature, the Industrial Symbiosis Indicator (ISI), has been used to estimate the level of industrial symbiosis associated with increasing materials recirculation inside the network. Four scenarios—ranging from perfect linearity to perfect circularity—representing growing circularity were tested. Findings demonstrate that the development of an effective industrial symbiosis network can contribute to improving the circular approach within the construction sector, reducing environmental and economic pressures.

The purpose of this article is to identify barriers, drivers, and the structure of the relationships that support industrial symbiosis initiatives in a network of Brazilian manufacturing companies. Two steelmaking plants are the anchor tenants of the network comprising a cement manufacturer, a thermoelectric generation plant, a lead ingots manufacturer, a zinc ingots manufacturer and refractory liner manufacturer, totaling eight relationships. The companies mutually exchange approximately 300,000 tons of by-products per year, comprising coal ash, mill scale, electric arc furnace dust, steam, zinc sludge, lead sludge, and refractory lining leftover, totaling eight dyadic or triadic relationships. The results of the study show that in three relationships, economic barriers exist (excessive processing or logistic cost). In four, internal barriers exist (risk of discontinuity and lack of research). In five, a technical barrier exists, the imbalance between generation and consumption. In seven, the drivers are cost reduction, new products or sources of revenue, and legal requirements. Environmental drivers (increasing the life of deposits or landfills) are present in five relationships. As for the structure, three relationships are one-way, whereas five are closed-loop, that is, involving direct and reverse transfers among partners.

The concepts of resilience and sustainability appear multi-dimensional and correlated, depending on the context. Operational sustainability practices can enhance the resilience of a firm, and support its growth. This study aims at analyzing the impact of a sustainability strategy, measured by means of a sustainability maturity index (SMI), on the financial performance of a company. Since the SMI is strictly correlated to resilience capabilities, the performed analysis represents a first level integration of the sustainability and resilience indicators in a common framework. A data sample from 53 organizations was collected through structured interviews and analyzed to identify possible relationships between the SMI and the financial performance indexes. The analysis does not support commonly reported arguments: we show that profitability does not show a significant relationship with sustainable strategic intent. Interestingly, firm country of origin, size of the organization, and market focus, likewise, do not have a significant relationship with SMI. Arguably, multi-dimensional company performance, including both financial and non-financial measures, should be considered to assess the impact of sustainability practices. Moreover, further investigations are needed to capture firms’ nonfinancial indicators of performance that are related to sustainability and resilience, for building up a unified framework enabling trade-off analysis.

Plastic materials account for about 20% of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE). The recycling of this plastic fraction is a complex issue, heavily conditioned by the content of harmful additives, such as brominated flame retardants. Thus, the management and reprocessing of WEEE plastics pose environmental and human health concerns, mainly in developing countries, where informal recycling and disposal are practiced. The objective of this study was twofold. Firstly, it aimed to investigate some of the available options described in the literature for the re-use of WEEE plastic scraps in construction materials, a promising recycling route in the developing countries. Moreover, it presents an evaluation of the impact of these available end-of-life scenarios on the environment by means of the life cycle assessment (LCA) approach. In order to consider worker health and human and ecological risks, the LCA analysis focuses on ecotoxicity more than on climate change. The LCA evaluation confirmed that the plastic re-use in the construction sector has a lower toxicity impact on the environment and human health than common landfilling and incineration practices. It also shows that the unregulated handling and dismantling activities, as well as the re-use practices, contribute significantly to the impact of WEEE plastic treatments.

Trillions of cigarettes are smoked annually making cigarette butts one of the most common types of litter in the world. Due to the materials and toxic substances that they contain, this waste carries a very harmful risk for the environment and for living organisms (including humans). Only a few - barely sustainable - solutions have tried to tackle this waste and alternative solutions to landfilling and incineration are needed. Identifying the best methodological solutions and technologies for recycling this kind of waste in terms of results and applicability to real contexts would reduce the presence of dangerous materials in the environment and ecosystems and would promote the recovery of materials in line with the circular economy and sustainable development. The objective of this review was to collect and analyze the alternative solutions available in the literature for the recovery and recycling of the materials in cigarette butts, considering them as possible sources of secondary raw materials applicable to contexts of common interest. Several papers were selected and the results obtained by the authors are presented in terms of type of treatment process (physical, chemical or both), product derived (in solid, liquid or gaseous form) and its possible use in different sectors (e.g. construction, electronics, energy, chemistry and environmental protection). The main results, together with the advantages and disadvantages are highlighted and proposals for further research are outlined.

This data article reports supplementary input and output data related to the research article "Environmental performance analysis of a dual-source heat pump system" on the life cycle assessment evaluation of an heat pump prototype, able to use alternatively the air and the ground as external heat sources. Primarily, the present article shows the life cycle inventory input data of the system under study and of the conventional air and ground heat pump systems, which were used for comparison. Secondly, complete numerical results are exposed, which are showed only graphically and in an aggregated form in the main article. Data include normalised and unaggregated environmental impacts of each investigated life cycle phase. The article also reports the complete results of the sensitivity analysis conducted using different assumptions on the energy mix and on the energy use.

In order to evaluate the environmental benefits of energy industrial symbiosis networks with the inclusion of renewable technologies, a model that minimises greenhouse gases emissions has been developed. A validation of the model has been carried out comparing the results with those calculated with a life cycle assessment of a reference case. The study demonstrates that energy industrial symbiosis networks integrating renewable energy technologies have the potential to significantly reduce greenhouse gases emissions and suggests a methodology to optimise energetic symbiosis connections inside eco-industrial parks.

The training of suppliers and inbound quality inspectors is a common strategy to increase the quality performance of the supply chain but, under budget constraints, these actors compete for a limited amount of training hours. The proposed model aims to allocate the available training hours so as to minimise a total quality cost function composed of prevention, appraisal, and failure costs; it also sets the inspection rates defining the inspection policies assigned to suppliers. The relationship between decision variables and costs is expressed through organisational and individual learning-forgetting curves, for suppliers and quality inspectors respectively, and the effect of the training hours on quality improvement is measured in terms of failure rates. To the best of our knowledge, a total quality cost model with such decision variables is new in the related literature, as it is a model including both organisational and individual learning-forgetting phenomena. A nonlinear optimisation approach was adopted to solve this complex problem. The experimental section includes a decision trees analysis of simplified scenarios in order to interpret the model functioning, as well as a complex numerical example to extrapolate managerial insights.

This paper investigates a new concept for the CO2 emission mitigation in the ceramic industry based on carbon reduction and methane formation. The concept is analysed as a retrofit to the natural gas fuelled ceramic kiln that represents the main responsible of this industry in terms of energy consumption and exhaust emissions. The carbon dioxide conversion to methane is obtained by reduction with hydrogen on a Ni catalyst and thus methane is used to fuel the standard burners that equip the kiln. The paper addresses different sources for the hydrogen used as a feedstock for the proposed concept as well as alternative catalysts are explored and compared in terms of reduction efficiency and costs. A lumped and distributed parameter simulation of the entire ceramic kiln is combined to the CFD simulation of the reactor to estimate the efficiency of the CO2 reduction and the corresponding methane production for a reference ceramic kiln. The results of the numerical simulations are then employed to discuss the potential benefits of the proposed concept in terms of carbon dioxide emission reduction for the ceramic production. An economic assessment of the system analysed is also carried out concept to determine the investment necessary to implement the technology in an existing ceramic kiln. The potential replicability for other industrial sector is also addressed.

The European Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment system introduced measures to encourage both the reduction of the amount of electronic waste and its separation to prepare for reuse. The aim of this study is compare the environmental performance, cost externality and job creation of the whole life cycle of new and reconditioned electrical and electronic equipment by adopting Life Cycle Assessment methodology. Five electrical and electronic equipment categories were investigated and the data collection was made on an Italian context. The refurbishing of breakdown electrical and electronic equipment was assessed by considering different sets of faulty components (Scenario A and B) and a total of 25 scenarios were studied. Moreover, both attributional and consequential life cycle inventory modelling framework were adopted to represent the investigated scenarios. The outcomes highlighted that the preparation for reuse process leads to obtaining a sustainable electronic device than the new one, depending on which set of components are replaced. Adopting Scenario B with the attributional model, the environmental damage of reconditioned electrical and electronic equipment decreases compared to the new one. Conversely, the consequential approach determines an environmental credit for all repaired electronic devices except for one category; in particular, Scenario A produced the largest environmental advantage. The analyses of external costs and social aspects confirm that the preparation for reuse activity allows to obtain a more sustainable product than a new one. For these two latter aspects, the results showed a turnaround passing from attributional model to consequential one. Noting the variability in results adopting both different life cycle inventory modelling framework and set of replaced components, the Life Cycle Assessment practitioner, that conducted the study, should help the decision-makers to determine which scenario is more sustainable accomplishing an adequate choice.

Complexity measurement based on the Shannon information entropy is widely used to evaluate variety and uncertainty in supply chains. However, how to use a complexity measurement to support control actions is still an open issue. This article presents a method to calculate the relative complexity, i.e., the relationship between the current and the maximum possible complexity in a Supply Chain. The method relies on unexpected information requirements to mitigate uncertainty. The article studies two real-world Supply Chains of the footwear industry, one competing by cost and quality, the other by flexibility, dependability, and innovation. The second is twice as complex as the first, showing that competitive priorities influence the complexity of the system and that lower complexity does not ensure competitivity.

Heat pump technology is widely considered to be one of the promising opportunities for energy-efficient and low-carbon solutions for buildings and construction. However, sustainability is not always an intrinsic feature of all heat pumps. According to the Life Cycle Thinking approach, to assess the complete sustainability of a technology, a direct evaluation of the environmental, economic and social aspects over the entire life cycle is needed. Due to the growing interest in this technology, the present review summarizes the existing contributions on the sustainability of heat pump systems for residential heating and cooling using the Life Cycle environmental and Social Assessment and Life Cycle Costing. The main results are highlighted, then the data input, methodological assumptions and evaluation criteria are analyzed. The study reveals how to improve the sustainability of HP devices from a life cycle thinking approach. (C) 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Today, almost everybody has a smartphone and applications have been developed to help users to take decisions (e.g. which hotel to choose, which museum to visit, etc). In order to improve the recommendations of the mobile application, it is crucial to elicit the preference structures of the user. As problems are often based on several criteria, multicriteria decision aiding methods are most adequate in these cases, and past works have proposed indirect eliciting approaches for multicriteria decision aiding methods. However, they often do not aim of reducing as much as possible the cognitive efforts required by the user. This is prerequisite of mobile applications as they are used by everybody. In this work, the weights to assign to the evaluation criteria in a PROMETHEE-based ranking approach are unknown, and therefore must be elicited indirectly either from a partial ranking provided by the user or from the selection of his/her most preferred alternative into a subset of reference alternatives. In the latter case, the cognitive effort required by the decision-maker is minimal. Starting from a linear optimisation model aimed at searching for the most discriminating vector of weights, three quadratic variants are proposed subsequently to overcome the issues arising from the linear model. An iterative quadratic optimisation model is proposed to fit the real setting in which the application should operate, where the eliciting procedure must be launched iteratively and converge over time to the vector of weights, which are the weights that the user implicitly assigns to the evaluation criteria. Finally, three experiments are performed to confirm the effectiveness and the differences between the proposed models. (C) 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.