There are numerous threats to the natural environment that pose a significant risk both to the environment and to human health, including car tires. Thus, there is a need to determine the impact of the life cycle of car tires on the environment, starting with the processes of raw materials acquisition, production, and ending with end-of-life management. Therefore, the authors of this study chose to do research on passenger car tires (size: P205/55/R16). As part of the research, the life cycle assessment (LCA) of traditional car tires was performed with the use of the Eco-indicator 99, cumulative energy demand (CED), and Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) methods. The level of negative effects was determined for the life cycle of a tire and its particular stages: Production, use, and end of life. The negative impact on the atmosphere, soil, and water, as well as on human health, the environment, and natural resources was also investigated. The results show that the most energy-absorbing stage of a car tire life cycle is the use stage. It was found that the most harmful impact involves the depletion of natural resources and emissions into the atmosphere. Recycling car tires reduces their negative environmental impact during all their life cycle stages.

The assessment of engineering objects in terms of energy consumption is an important part of sustainable development. Many materials, including those from the energy sector, need to undergo earlier processing, e.g., grinding. Grinding processes still demand a significant amount of energy, whereas current energy assessment methods do not take into account important parameters of the process, which makes it difficult to choose their optimal values. The study presents the analysis, testing, and assessment of mechanical engineering systems in terms of the energy consumption involved in the grinding of biomass intended for energy production purposes. A testing methodology was developed to improve the parameters of multi-disc grinding, including the reduction of energy consumption, power input, product quality improvement, and process efficiency. An original model of integrated energy consumption was developed. Tests were carried out on a five-disc grinder for five programs to assess the programmable angular speeds of the grinder discs. Output values, including specific energy demand, fragmentation degree, and integrated energy consumption, were assigned to each testing program. The test results were subjected to statistical analysis. Based on the authors' own research, it was found that the angular speed of the discs and, consequently, the linear speed of the grinding blades, have a significant influence on the values of the integrated energy consumption of the preliminary process.Acquiring energy from biomass requires its earlier preparation: drying, grinding, palletizing, etc. [7]. These procedures require certain energy inputs (costs) which significantly decrease the energy and environmental balance in the entire lifecycle of the energy material (wood, grain biomass, etc.) [8][9][10][11][12][13]. According to the idea of sustainable development concerning the design of systems, devices, and processes, in three areas-the environment, society, and economy-the biomass processing lines should be characterized by the lowest possible energy consumption and environmental impact [14,15]. It also aims to improve the competitiveness of biomass fuels in relation to conventional fossil fuels [16,17].Before being used for energy purposes, energy media need to be properly prepared, e.g., their dimensions need to be reduced by means of grinding [2]. Roller, drum, ball, hammer, and disc mills are used to grind granular biomaterials (biomass grains) [7,18]. Tests have shown that the best relations between product quality, yield, and grinding energy consumption occur for hammer and disc mills [2,7]. The quality of the grinding product is most often determined by the grinding degree, which is defined as the ratio of the characteristic dimensions of the particles before and after size reduction [19,20]. Other indicators, e.g., bulk density, grain size distribution, specific surface area, energy value, and their relationship with the comminution process, are also important from the point of view of the final product quality [4,[21][22]...

In recent years, there has been a significant increase in the consumption of single-use packaging. Their material diversity is a significant barrier to recycling, causing overloading of landfills. Increasing negative environmental aspects have highlighted the need to develop solutions to achieve a relatively high efficiency of the bottle shaping process with the lowest possible energy consumption. The aim of the project is to try to describe the impact of this process on the state, transformation and development of the natural environment. The work concerns current issues of the impact of packaging on the natural environment. The main goal was to conduct a life cycle analysis (LCA) of beverage bottles made of polylactide. The functional unit comprised a total of 1000 pieces of PLA bottles with a capacity of 1 L. The boundary of the adopted system included the steps from the delivery of the preforms to the production plant to their correct formation in the process of forming beverage bottles. Further stages of the production process were excluded from the system, such as beverage bottling, labeling, and storage and distribution. Processes related to transport and storage of raw material were also excluded. The LCA analysis was performed using the program of the Dutch company Pre Consultants called SimaPro 8.4.0. The ReCiPe 2016 method was chosen for the interpretation of the quantity of emitted substances into the natural environment. The test results were presented graphically on bar charts and subjected to verification and interpretation.

In recent years, the offshore wind power industry has been growing dynamically. A key element which decides upon power output of a wind power plant is blades. They are most frequently produced from polymers – laminates with epoxy resins and fiberglass. In the near future, when the blade life cycles are over, large amounts of waste material of this type will have to be reused. This paper presents a comparison analysis of the impact of particular material existence cycle stages of land-based and offshore wind power plant blades on the environment. Two wind power plant blades, of about 49 m in length each, were examined using the LCA method, the programme SimaPro, and Ekowskaźnik 99 modelling (phase LCIA).

Strength properties of grains have a significant impact on the energy demand of grinding mills. This paper presents the results of tests of strength and energy needed the for destruction of rice grains. The research aim was to experimentally determine mechanical and processing properties of the rice grains. The research problem was formulated in the form of questions: (1) what force and energy are needed to induce a rupture of rice grain of the Oryza sativa L. of long-grain variety? (2) what is the relationship between grain size and strength parameters and the energy of grinding rice grain of the species Oryza sativa L. long-grain variety? In order to find the answer to the problems posed, a static compression test of rice grains was done. The results indicate that the average forces needed to crush rice grain are 174.99 kg m·s−2, and the average energy is 28.03 mJ. There was no statistically significant relationship between the grain volume calculated based on the volumetric mass density Vρ and the crushing energy, nor between the volume Vρ and other strength properties of rice grains. In the case of Vs, a low negative correlation between strength σmin and a low positive correlation between the power inducing the first crack were found for the grain size related volume. A low negative correlation between the grain thickness a3, stresses σmin and work WFmax was found as well as a low positive correlation between thickness a3 and the force inducing the first crack Fmin.

This study deals with the problems connected with the benefits and costs of an offshore wind power plant in terms of ecology. Development prospects of offshore and land-based wind energy production are described. Selected aspects involved in the design, construction, and operation of offshore wind power plant construction and operation are presented. The aim of this study was to analyze and compare the environmental impact of offshore and land-based wind power plants.Life cycle assessment analysis of 2-MW offshore and land wind power plants was made with the use of Eco-indicator 99 modeling. The results were compared in four areas of impact in order to obtain values of indexes for nonergonomic (impact on/by operator), nonfunctional (of/on the product), nonecological (on/by living objects), and nonsozological impacts (on/by manmade objects), reflecting the extent of threat to human health, the environment, and natural resources. The processes involved in extraction of fossil fuels were found to produce harmful emissions which in turn lead to respiratory system diseases being, thus, extremely dangerous for the natural environment. For all the studied areas, the impact on the environment was found to be higher for land-based wind power plants than for an offshore wind farm.A typical wind farm consists of nearly 8000 different elements, whereas, the most important ones are: rotor with blades, gondola, tower and a foundation. Figure 1 shows the technological environment of an offshore wind farm with the most commonly used types of foundations. Monopile is the most popular type of foundation (74% of European offshore installations) due to the low construction costs, simplicity, and the possibility of being used in shallow water (less than 20 m deep). The post is drilled or pounded into the sea bottom. In the beginning, a GBS (gravity-based structure) was used in shallow water (up to 15 m deep); currently it is being adjusted to bigger and bigger depths (nearly 30 m). A large area and the weight of the foundation protect the power plant from the forces of waves and wind. The foundation of bases of the tripod and triple type are fixed on three posts so that they can be used in deeper water. Three ends of the base are set or pounded into the sea bottom to support the central axis of the installation, connecting the axis with a turbine. Whereas the foundation of jacket type consists of a larger structure made of steel bars which are symmetrically sited beyond the main axis of the entire structure (efficiency of materials) [2,7,8].

This paper describes identification and components of destructiveness of energy, economic and ecologic profits and outlays during life cycle of offshore wind electric power plants as well as the most useful models for their design, assembly and use. There are characterized technical conditions (concepts, structures, processes) indispensable for increasing profits and/or decreasing energy, economic and ecological outlays on their operation as well as development prospects for global, European and domestic markets of offshore wind electric power industry. A preliminary analysis was performed for an impact of operators, processed objects, living and artificial environmental objects of a 2MW wind electric power plant on possible increase of profits and decrease of outlays as a result of compensation of destructiveness of the system, environment and man.

Using environmentally friendly materials in the technological process of bottle production fits perfectly into the idea of sustainable development. The use of natural raw materials as well as conscious energy consumption are strategic aspects that should be considered in order to improve the effectiveness of the bottle moulding process. This paper presents a new and structured approach to the analysis of uncertainty and sensitivity in life cycle assessment, one developed in order to support the design process of environmentally friendly food packaging materials. With regard to this “probabilistic” approach to life cycle assessment, results are expressed as ranges of environmental impacts, and alternative solutions are developed while offering the concept of input uncertainty and the effect thereof on the final result. This approach includes: (1) the evaluation of the quality of inputs (represented by the origin matrix); (2) the reliability of results and (3) the uncertainty of results (the Monte Carlo method). The use of the methodology is illustrated based on an experiment conducted with real data from the technological process of bottle production. The results provide insight into the uncertainty of life cycle assessment indicators regarding global warming, acidification and the use of arable fields and farmland.