Electric mobility is playing an important and growing role in the context of sustainable transport sector development. This study presents the life cycle assessment of an electric car based on the technology of Lithium-ion battery (BEV) for Europe and compares it to an internal combustion engine vehicle (ICEV). According to a cradle-to-grave approach, manufacturing, use and disposal phases of both vehicles have been included in the assessment in order to identify the hot spots of the entire life cycles. For electric vehicles two manufacturing inventories have been analysed and different vehicle disposal pathways have also been considered. Furthermore, the environmental performances of hybrid vehicles have been analysed based on the life cycle models of the BEV and ICEV. The results of the hot spot analysis showed that the BEV manufacturing phase determined the highest environmental burdens mainly in the toxicity categories as a result of the use of metals in the battery pack. However, the greenhouse gas emissions associated with the BEV use phase were shown to be half than those recorded for the ICEV use phase. The trend of the results has also been investigated for future energy mixes: the electricity and diesel mixes for the year 2050 have been considered for the modelling of the use phase of BEV and ICEV

Second generation bioethanol represents an interesting alternative for liquid fuels in times of increased concerns over global warming and energy security. However, the recalcitrant structure of lignocellulosic biomass feedstock, makes necessary a pretreatment process to increase the conversion of sugars. Diluted acid (DA), Liquid hot water (LHW), Steam explosion (SE), Ammonia fiber explosion (AFEX) and Organosolv (OS) pretreatment are assessed using a combined economic value and environmental impact (EVEI) analysis under a full biorefinery setup in order to assess the best pretreatment process from a techno-economic-environmental point of view. Five process areas were identified within each process considered: pretreatment stage, conversion stage, product purification and separation stage, water treatment stage, and co-generation stage. A process simulation software was used to consider material and energy balances of the biorefineries with different pretreatment processes and to optimize the separation and purification processes (e.g. distillation columns). For the considered biomass and scenarios, all processes resulted in positive gains in terms of economic feasibility and carbon dioxide emissions. In particular, Dilute Acid can be considered the best pretreatment process to produce lignocellulosic bioethanol thanks to the best techno-economicenvironmental performences , with the largest economic and environmental margins with 39.2 M$/year and 83.9 kt CO2/year respectively.

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