No abstract

Rare earth elements (REEs) are a collection of 17 chemical elements that are critical to the functionality of a host of modern commercial industries including emerging clean energy technologies, electronics, medical devices, and national defense applications. Despite their key importance in multiple industries, to-date there has been little emphasis on environmental systems analysis of REE production. Rapid growth in these industrial sectors could result in heightened global demand for REE. As such, assessing the broader ramifications of REE production on human health and the environment is crucial for guiding the sustainable development of these industries. In this study, life cycle assessment (LCA) is performed to evaluate the environmental impacts and resource intensity of producing rare earth oxides (REO) from the Bayan Obo mine located in Inner Mongolia, China. Analysis indicates that the mining, as well as extraction and roasting phase(s), had the greatest contribution to overall life cycle environmental impacts. Additionally, the results reveal that the production of heavy REO consumes over 20 times more primary energy as compared to steel (per unit mass). The high primary energy consumption and life cycle environmental impacts of REO production highlight the critical need for development of REE recycling operations and infrastructure.

BackgroundMicroalgae are touted as an attractive alternative to traditional forms of biomass for biofuel production, due to high productivity, ability to be cultivated on marginal lands, and potential to utilize carbon dioxide (CO2) from industrial flue gas. This work examines the fossil energy return on investment (EROIfossil), greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and direct Water Demands (WD) of producing dried algal biomass through the cultivation of microalgae in Open Raceway Ponds (ORP) for 21 geographic locations in the contiguous United States (U.S.). For each location, comprehensive life cycle assessment (LCA) is performed for multiple microalgal biomass production pathways, consisting of a combination of cultivation and harvesting options.ResultsResults indicate that the EROIfossil for microalgae biomass vary from 0.38 to 1.08 with life cycle GHG emissions of −46.2 to 48.9 (g CO2 eq/MJ-biomass) and direct WDs of 20.8 to 38.8 (Liters/MJ-biomass) over the range of scenarios analyzed. Further anaylsis reveals that the EROIfossil for production pathways is relatively location invariant, and that algae’s life cycle energy balance and GHG impacts are highly dependent on cultivation and harvesting parameters. Contrarily, algae’s direct water demands were found to be highly sensitive to geographic location, and thus may be a constraining factor in sustainable algal-derived biofuel production. Additionally, scenarios with promising EROIfossil and GHG emissions profiles are plagued with high technological uncertainty.ConclusionsGiven the high variability in microalgae’s energy and environmental performance, careful evaluation of the algae-to-fuel supply chain is necessary to ensure the long-term sustainability of emerging algal biofuel systems. Alternative production scenarios and technologies may have the potential to reduce the critical demands of biomass production, and should be considered to make algae a viable and more efficient biofuel alternative.

Deficits in insect-mediated pollination service undermine ecosystem biodiversity and function, human nutrition, and economic welfare. Global pollinator supply continues to decline, while production of pollination-dependent crops increases. Using publicly available price and production data and existing pollination field studies, we quantify economic dependence of United States crops on insect-mediated pollination service at the county level and update existing coefficients of insect dependence of sample crops when possible. Economic value dependent on pollination service totals 34.0 billion USD in 2012. Twenty percent of US counties produce 80% of total economic value attributable to insect pollinators. We compile county-level data and consider the spatial relationship between economic value dependent on insect-mediated pollination, region-specific forage suitability, and crop-specific agricultural areas within US landscapes. We identify vulnerable, highly dependent areas where habitat for wild pollinators has been reduced. These results can help inform future efforts to conserve and bolster managed and wild pollinator populations to ensure sustainable production of key agricultural crops.

Holistic evaluation of emerging nanotechnologies using systems analysis is pivotal for guiding their safe and sustainable development. While toxicity studies of engineered nanomaterials are essential, understanding of the potential large scale impacts of nanotechnology is also critical for developing sustainable nanoproducts. This work evaluates the life cycle energetic impact associated with the production and use of carbon nanofiber (CNF) reinforced polymer nanocomposites (PNC). Specifically, both simple CNF and carbon nanofiber-glass fiber (CNF-GF) hybrid PNCs are evaluated and compared with steel for equal stiffness design. Life cycle inventory is developed based on published literature and best available engineering information. A cradle-to-gate comparison suggests that for equal stiffness design, CNF reinforced PNCs are 1.6-12 times more energy intensive than steel. It is anticipated that the product use phase may strongly influence whether any net savings in life cycle energy consumption can be realized. A case study involving the use of CNF and CNF-GF reinforced PNCs in the body panels of automobiles highlights that the use of PNCs with lower CNF loading ratios has the potential for net life cycle energy savings relative to steel owing to improved fuel economy benefits. Other factors such as cost, toxicity impact of CNF, and end-of-life issues specific to CNFs need to be considered to evaluate the final economic and environmental performance of CNF reinforced PNC materials.