Purpose
Good background data are an important requirement in LCA. Practitioners generally make use of LCI databases for such data, and the ecoinvent database is the largest transparent unit-process LCI database worldwide. Since its first release in 2003, it has been continuously updated, and version 3 was published in 2013. The release of version 3 introduced several significant methodological and technological improvements, besides a large number of new and updated datasets. The aim was to expand the content of the database, set the foundation for a truly global database, support regionalized LCIA, offer multiple system models, allow for easier integration of data from different regions, and reduce maintenance efforts. This article describes the methodological developments.

The ecoinvent database version 3 (part I): overview and methodology

https://escholarship.org/content/qt50r1b9sg/qt50r1b9sg.pdf?t=ok16ag

Engineered nanomaterials for water treatment and remediation: Costs, benefits, and applicability

Engineered nanomaterials (ENMs) are increasingly entering the environment with uncertain consequences including potential ecological effects Various research communities view differently whether ecotoxicological testing of ENMs should be conducted using environmentally relevant concentrations-where observing outcomes is difficult-versus higher ENM doses, where responses are observable What exposure conditions are typically used in assessing ENM hazards to populations? What conditions are used to test ecosystem-scale hazards? What is known regarding actual ENMs in the environment, via measurements or modeling simulations? How should exposure conditions, ENM transformation, dose, and body burden be used in interpreting biological and computational findings for assessing risks? These questions were addressed in the context of this critical review As a result, three main recommendations emerged First, researchers should improve ecotoxicology of ENMs by choosing test end points, duration, and study conditions-including ENM test concentrations-that align with realistic exposure scenarios Second, testing should proceed via tiers with iterative feedback that informs experiments at other levels of biological organization Finally, environmental realism in ENM hazard assessments should involve greater coordination among ENM quantitative analysts, exposure modelers, and ecotoxicologists, across government, industry, and academia

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Considerations of Environmentally Relevant Test Conditions for Improved Evaluation of Ecological Hazards of Engineered Nanomaterials

https://escholarship.org/content/qt98x882rd/qt98x882rd.pdf?t=o94c4j

Heteroaggregation of nanoparticles with biocolloids and geocolloids

Cancer is one of the most common health problems responsible for outnumbered deaths worldwide. Nanomedicine plays an important role in developing alternative and more effective treatment strategies...

https://tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/17518253.2017.1385856

Anti-cancer green bionanomaterials: present status and future prospects

We examined the potential life-cycle environmental impact reduction of three green building code and certification (GBCC) systems: LEED, ASHRAE 189.1, and IgCC. A recently completed whole-building life cycle assessment (LCA) database of NIST was applied to a prototype building model specification by NREL. TRACI 2.0 of EPA was used for life cycle impact assessment (LCIA). The results showed that the baseline building model generates about 18 thousand metric tons CO2-equiv. of greenhouse gases (GHGs) and consumes 6 terajoule (TJ) of primary energy and 328 million liter of water over its life-cycle. Overall, GBCC-compliant building models generated 0% to 25% less environmental impacts than the baseline case (average 14% reduction). The largest reductions were associated with acidification (25%), human health-respiratory (24%), and global warming (GW) (22%), while no reductions were observed for ozone layer depletion (OD) and land use (LU). The performances of the three GBCC-compliant building models measured in life-cycle impact reduction were comparable. A sensitivity analysis showed that the comparative results were reasonably robust, although some results were relatively sensitive to the behavioral parameters, including employee transportation and purchased electricity during the occupancy phase (average sensitivity coefficients 0.26-0.29).

/pdf/environmental-performance-of-green-building-code-and-4zbxkkgldz.pdf

Environmental Performance of Green Building Code and Certification Systems

Building a global Life Cycle Inventory (LCI) database from scratch with a harmonized method and wide process coverage would require significant resources. Therefore, it is worth examining to what extent existing LCI datasets can be adapted to form the basis of a more common database. This study examines the opportunities and challenges of transforming the existing US Life Cycle Inventory (US LCI) database to meet the intrinsic (e.g., assumptions, methods, completeness) and extrinsic (e.g., data format) requirements of ecoinvent 3. Nineteen US LCI datasets were selected for transformation. Datasets were first converted in batch from EcoSpold 1 to EcoSpold 2 format using an automated tool based on a Python script. Other changes necessary to conform to ecoinvent standards were made manually, such as changing activity and flow names, mapping dummy exchanges, and creating global reference datasets. To address data gaps and other data quality issues, each dataset was assessed against ecoinvent 3 data quality guidelines and missing information was noted. When available, public reports for the US LCI datasets were examined to fill in data gaps. Datasets were also compared against similar processes in ecoinvent to see if there were any significant flows omitted; missing flows were filled by using estimates for these exchanges from similar processes already within ecoinvent. The automated tool for data exchange format conversion saved time and reduced the potential for error. Even so, a nontrivial amount of time and research was spent on the manual changes needed to conform to ecoinvent standards. Addressing data gaps and other data quality issues also required considerable effort. In general, US LCI datasets were missing the following data required by ecoinvent 3: land use, water, and infrastructure exchanges; production volumes; uncertainty and data quality information; and adequate documentation of system boundaries, methodology, and process technology. Much of this missing data could be filled by examining available reports, using ecoinvent data as proxies, or conducting independent research. However, in some cases, such as for water data, adequate estimates could not be determined based on readily available materials. This case study showed that it is possible to incorporate existing regional datasets into ecoinvent version 3, but significant resources may be required to restructure the datasets and fill data gaps. While this study focused on the US LCI and ecoinvent databases, its lessons can be applied to any inter-database conversion. In particular, new national LCI database initiatives should consider compatibility with established databases such as ecoinvent when designing the database framework, standards and guidelines.

Interoperability between ecoinvent ver. 3 and US LCI database: a case study

Manufactured nanomaterials (MNMs) are increasingly incorporated into consumer products that are disposed into sewage. In wastewater treatment, MNMs adsorb to activated sludge biomass where they may impact biological wastewater treatment performance, including nutrient removal. Here, we studied MNM effects on bacterial polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA), specifically polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB), biosynthesis because of its importance to enhanced biological phosphorus (P) removal (EBPR). Activated sludge was sampled from an anoxic selector of a municipal wastewater treatment plant (WWTP), and PHB-containing bacteria were concentrated by density gradient centrifugation. After starvation to decrease intracellular PHB stores, bacteria were nutritionally augmented to promote PHB biosynthesis while being exposed to either MNMs (TiO2 or Ag) or to Ag salts (each at a concentration of 5 mg L–1). Cellular PHB concentration and PhyloChip community composition were analyzed. The final bacterial community composition differed fr...

Shivira Tomar

Papers

Environmental Performance of Green Building Code and Certification Systems

Interoperability between ecoinvent ver. 3 and US LCI database: a case study

Effects of TiO2 and Ag nanoparticles on polyhydroxybutyrate biosynthesis by activated sludge bacteria.