Life cycle assessment research in Brazil: characteristics, interdiciplinarity, and applications

Abstract

Purpose This paper aims to present an overview of the research groups on life cycle assessment (LCA) in Brazil to (i) characterize these groups, including their constitution, geographical distribution, and the nature of the institutions to which they are connected; (ii) classify the groups according to the knowledge areas and identify the existing interdisciplinarity between research lines; (iii) identify collaborative relationships between the groups; and (iv) determine the main focus of interest and applicability of the studies and activities developed.Methods The identification of and information about the groups that developed studies related to LCA were obtained from a survey of the Brazilian Directory of Research Groups (DRG). Interdisciplinarity was based on the classification of each group's lines of research. Collaborative relationships were identified from co-authored publications indexed in the Web of Science. The research groups' focus was defined based on their descriptions and sectors of activity, as reported in the DRG. Results and discussionThe study covered a total of 82 groups and 510 research lines. Among the findings, the following can be cited: there is great regional asymmetry in the distribution of groups; most of them are linked to universities and are located in Engineering, specifically Industrial, Mechanical, Sanitary, and Civil; there is an interdisciplinary approach that covers 49 areas of knowledge; and the main focus of the groups is related to sectors of activity such as energy (emphasis on biofuels), agriculture and livestock, and construction. Some groups developed studies with practical applications, whereas others focused on conceptual aspects related to environmental management and sustainable development. Conclusions The number of research groups related to LCA has grown in Brazil. This growth is important, especially for a country such as Brazil, which has continental dimensions and a number of regional specificities. However, a vast field of study remains to be explored, and this assessment method needs to be disseminated more widely in some regions of the country.

Life Cycle Assessment of Dairy Products: A Case Study of a Dairy Factory in Brazil

“…The development of the LCA technique over the last few decades has been closely linked to the agro-industrial and food sectors. In addition, with the growing concern for the environmental sustainability of food production and the complexity of mitigating the environmental impacts, there has been an increase in applied research and scientific production around this topic, which has also been evident in Brazil [19,20]. The use of LCA for activities associated with agribusiness has been presented as the fourth largest application of this technique by the Brazilian Institute of Information in Science and Technology, representing 9% of all studies within this area [21].…”

Green Coalescent Synthesis Based on the Design for Environment (DfE) Principles: Brazilian Experience

“…In these situations, the coating figured only in supporting roles. Some reports of successful experience applying LCA to assess the environmental performance of installed industrial processes or those displaying implementation potential in Brazil have been published more recently [27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35]. However, in all these cases, the technique was employed in the scope restricted to the production cycle (from cradle-to-gate) to identify environmental arrangement bottlenecks and propose improvement actions based on engineering conduct and management practices.…”

Avaliação do desempenho ambiental de biodiesel produzido a partir de gordura animal segundo diferentes abordagens para situaçõees de multifuncionalidade.

“…Adicionalmente, ainda é importante que sejam incentivadas a construção de iniciativas conjuntas entre universidades, empresas e ógãos do governo. Este tipo de paceria tem grande potencial de contribuição para se elaborar um banco de dados amplo com produtos de interesse para o país (LIMA, 2007;SILVA, 2007;ROCHA et al, 2015;SOUZA et al, 2016). Tal parceria deveria considerar, fundamentalmente, a necessidade de harmonização de procedimentos e condutas inerentes à condução de estudos desta natureza, a fim de se maximizar a consistência dos resultados obtidos por diferentes executores ao longo do tempo.…”