Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) is an unavoidable by-product of modern societies production and consumption patterns. Envisaging waste management strategies is a complex and challenging task, influenced ...by technical site-specific aspects. To achieve more informed decisions, technical experts should avoid streamlined and generalized analyses, while at the same time policy-makers should increasingly rely on LCA and other biophysical assessment approaches, which can help them identifying context-specific waste hierarchies and priorities. This paper uses site-specific data in comparing different waste management routes for the Metropolitan City of Naples. The waste management of the Metropolitan City of Naples (3 million people, Campania Region, Southern Italy) in the year 2012 is investigated as a case-study, after having faced a severe waste production and disposal crisis, that has not been totally resolved yet. An extensive collection of primary data is carried out to describe the main input/output flows associated with the treatment and recovery of each single waste fraction (Mixed Municipal Solid Waste – MMSW, Organic Fraction Municipal Solid Waste – OFMSW, Recyclable Fraction Municipal Solid Waste – RFMSW). LCA results reveal that the main burdens are caused by the treatment of MMSW (i.e. mechanical biological treatment, landfill, waste-to-energy) and by the export/transport of the OFMSW outside the region (due to the lack of local treatment plants), almost in all analyzed impact categories. The identification of the weak points along the waste management chain allows a sensitivity analysis to test the influence of potential improvements by means of a scenario analysis. Six strategies, substantially differing in terms of percentage of separate collection, transportation routes and options for the disposal of residual waste, are designed and analyzed. The achieved results point out that it is possible to improve the environmental efficiency of the waste management chain locally, in so strengthening the entire waste management process. This study confirms that LCA, if carefully conducted, allows the identification of criticalities and improvement potential towards new management strategies. The use of site-specific data of full-scale waste treatment facilities and the definition of alternative waste management hierarchies may help decision-making by local public administrators and stakeholders, providing a transparent picture and deep understanding of costs and benefits for waste management at local scale.
•Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) Management of Naples in the year 2012 is investigated.•Six alternative scenarios for MSW management are compared by means of LCA.•The use of site-specific data in LCA is crucial for decision making processes.
In the challenge of transforming waste into useful products that can be re-used in a circular perspective, Italian wine industry can represent a suitable model for the application of the bioeconomy ...principles, including the valorisation of the agricultural and food waste. In the present study, a comprehensive environmental assessment of the traditional production of wine was performed and the potentiality of a biorefinery system, based on winery waste and aimed at recovering useful bio-based products, such as grapeseed oil and calcium tartrate, was examined through Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). The wine company “I Borboni”, producing Asprinio wine in the Campania Region (Italy), was proposed as a case study. The hotspots of the linear production system were identified and the bottling phase, in particular the production of packaging glass, resulted to contribute to the generation of impacts at 63%, on average, versus 14.3% of the agricultural phase and 22.7% of the vinification phase. The LCA results indicated human carcinogenic toxicity, freshwater eutrophication and fossil resource scarcity impact categories as the most affected ones, with normalized impacts amounting to 9.22E−03, 3.89E−04 and 2.64E−04, respectively. Two side production chains (grapeseed oil and tartrate production) were included and circular patterns were designed and introduced in the traditional production chain with the aim of valorising the winery residues and improving the overall environmental performance. By implementing the circular approach, environmental impacts in the global warming, freshwater eutrophication and mineral resource scarcity impact categories, in particular, resulted three times lower than in the linear system. The results achieved demonstrated that closing the loops in the wine industry, through the reuse of bio-based residues alternatively to fossil-based inputs within the production process, and integrating the traditional production system with new side production chains led to an upgrade of the wineries to biorefineries, towards more sustainable production patterns.
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•The traditional production of wine is assessed through Life Cycle Assessment (LCA).•Side chains and circular patterns are integrated in the linear production chain.•The potentiality of a biorefinery system based on winery waste is explored.•Environmental benefits are achieved by implementing the circular approach.•Wine industry can become a proactive model for the whole food industry.
Abstract
Astrometry was not a science case of the Gemini Multiconjugate Adaptive Optics System (GeMS) at its design stage. However, since GeMS has been in regular science operation with the Gemini ...South Adaptive Optics Imager (GSAOI), its astrometric performance has been deeply analysed. The non-linear component of the distortion-map model shows a characteristic pattern, which is similarly repeated in each detector of GSAOI. The nature of this pattern was unknown and subjected to different hypotheses. This article describes the origin of the GeMS distortion pattern, as well as its multi-epoch variation. Finally, we show a comparison with the current design of the Multiconjugate Adaptive Optics RelaY (MAORY) of the Extremely Large Telescope (ELT).
ABSTRACT We present a detailed investigation of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) disk using classical Cepheids. Our analysis is based on optical (I, V; OGLE-IV), near-infrared (NIR: J, H, ) and ...mid-infrared (MIR: w1; WISE) mean magnitudes. By adopting new templates to estimate the NIR mean magnitudes from single-epoch measurements, we build the currently most accurate, largest, and homogeneous multi-band data set of LMC Cepheids. We determine Cepheid individual distances using optical and NIR Period-Wesenheit relations (PWRs), to measure the geometry of the LMC disk and its viewing angles. Cepheid distances based on optical PWRs are precise at 3%, but accurate to 7%, while the ones based on NIR PWRs are more accurate (to 3%), but less precise (2%-15%), given the higher photometric error on the observed magnitudes. We found an inclination of i = 25.05 0.02 (stat.) 0.55 (syst.) deg, and a position angle of the lines of nodes P.A. = 150.76 0.02 (stat.) 0.07 (syst.) deg. These values agree well with estimates based either on young (Red Supergiants) or on intermediate-age (Asymptotic Giant Branch, Red Clump) stellar tracers, but they significantly differ from evaluations based on old (RR Lyrae) stellar tracers. This indicates that young/intermediate and old stellar populations have different spatial distributions. Finally, by using the reddening-law fitting approach, we provide a reddening map of the LMC disk, which is 10 times more accurate and 2 times larger than similar maps in the literature. We also found an LMC true distance modulus of (stat. and syst.) mag, in excellent agreement with the currently most accurate measurement.
We present the identification of 634 variable stars in the Milky Way dwarf spheroidal (dSph) satellite Sculptor based on archival ground-based optical observations spanning ∼24 yr and covering ...∼2.5 deg2. We employed the same methodologies as the ‘Homogeneous Photometry’ series published by Stetson. In particular, we have identified and characterized one of the largest (536) RR Lyrae samples so far in a Milky Way dSph satellite. We have also detected four Anomalous Cepheids, 23 SX Phoenicis stars, five eclipsing binaries, three field variable stars, three peculiar variable stars located above the horizontal branch – near to the locus of BL Herculis – that we are unable to classify properly. Additionally, we identify 37 long period variables plus 23 probable variable stars, for which the current data do not allow us to determine the period. We report positions and finding charts for all the variable stars, and basic properties (period, amplitude, mean magnitude) and light curves for 574 of them. We discuss the properties of the RR Lyrae stars in the Bailey diagram, which supports the coexistence of subpopulations with different chemical compositions. We estimate the mean mass of Anomalous Cepheids (∼1.5 M⊙) and SX Phoenicis stars (∼1 M⊙). We discuss in detail the nature of the former. The connections between the properties of the different families of variable stars are discussed in the context of the star formation history of the Sculptor dSph galaxy.
•An innovative waste treatment process is proposed and evaluated by means of LCA.•The MARSS process produces a biomass fuel with a marketable quality for CHP plants.•The recovery of energy and metals ...generates significant environmental benefits.•Valuable resources can be recovered from waste and be feedback to the urban systems.
Waste disposal is a controversial issue in many European countries: concerns about potential health effects and land value loss as well as the fulfillment of the European Landfill Directive and Waste Framework Directive have significantly changed the way waste should be managed. An appropriate management of municipal solid waste (MSW) may allow a significant enhancement of efficiency in resources use, by recovering both energy and materials from waste, otherwise landfilled, thus replacing fossil fuels and virgin materials with renewable sources. Separation and recovery of the biodegradable fraction of municipal solid waste is encouraged as a mean to produce bioenergy. Therefore, if not source segregated, innovative waste refining technologies may provide potential solutions for separation of organic fraction and improved energy and materials recovery.
This paper presents a comprehensive system study of a recently developed technology aimed to improve the MSW management in order to decrease the demand for new landfill space and, at the same time, contribute to the urban energy needs. As part of a wider Life Plus Project entitled MARSS (Material Advanced Recovery Sustainable Systems), funded by European Community in 2012, the environmental assessment of an innovative and enhanced mechanical and biological treatment (MBT) demo plant installed in Mertesdorf (Germany) was performed by means of the SimaPro 8.0.5 LCA software, utilizing ReCiPe (H) Midpoint method for the impact assessment. The plant under study is designed to concentrate the biodegradable part of MSW in the <40mm fraction, through a series of refining and recovery steps, to remove contaminants and obtain a suitable biomass fuel with a final marketable quality fulfilling the requirements for biomass power plants to generate urban decentralized production of heat and power (CHP). This study aims at understanding if and to what extent the MBT-MARSS plant is environmentally sound, by investigating environmental costs and benefits of replacing MSW landfilling and waste-to-energy disposal by means of boosted separation of biomass for energy generation in CHPs and other recoverable fractions (metals, plastic). Steps and/or components that can be further improved are also assessed. Sensitivity of impacts to assumptions regarding the source of replaced electricity was also tested. Results not only emphasize the novelty of a promising new technology, but also the extent of benefits that can be achieved depending on the actual power generation technique that is replaced by means of the energy recovered in the process. The quantitative evaluation of the MARSS technology shows that appropriate design and management of the MBT plant lead to substantial reduction of environmental impacts as well as material and energy resource savings, thus putting forward a technical solution suitable for those cities/countries where other solutions are still lacking or inappropriate or unfeasible.
Context. Current spectroscopic and photometric surveys are providing a comprehensive view of the Milky Way bulge stellar population properties with unprecedented accuracy. This in turn allows us to ...explore the correlation between kinematics and stellar density distribution, crucial to constrain the models of Galactic bulge formation. Aims. The Giraffe Inner Bulge Survey (GIBS) revealed the presence of a velocity dispersion peak in the central few degrees of the Galaxy by consistently measuring high velocity dispersion in the three central most fields. Due to the suboptimal distribution of these fields, all being at negative latitudes and close to each other, the shape and extension of the sigma peak is poorly constrained. In this study we address this by adding new observations distributed more uniformly and in particular including fields at positive latitudes that were missing in GIBS. Methods. Observations with Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) were collected in four fields at (l, b) = (0°, +2°), (0°, −2°), (+1°, −1°), and (−1°, +2°). Individual stellar spectra were extracted for a number of stars comprised between ~500 and ~1200, depending on the seeing and the exposure time. Velocity measurements are done by cross-correlating observed stellar spectra in the CaT region with a synthetic template, and velocity errors are obtained through Monte Carlo simulations, cross-correlating synthetic spectra with a range of different metallicities and different noise characteristics. Results. We measure the central velocity dispersion peak within a projected distance from the Galactic center of ~280 pc, reaching σVGC ~ 140 km s−1 at b = −1°. This is in agreement with the results obtained previously by GIBS at negative longitude. The central sigma peak is symmetric with respect to the Galactic plane, with a longitude extension at least as narrow as predicted by GIBS. As a result of the Monte Carlo simulations we present analytical equations for the radial velocity measurement error as a function of metallicity and signal-to-noise ratio for giant and dwarf stars.
•A comparison of alternative uses of rooftops in Mediterranean context was performed.•Environmental costs and benefits of rooftop greenhouses and solar rooftops were evaluated.•Larger benefits, ...especially in climate change, were achieved by solar rooftop.•Urban planning has a crucial role in optimizing the circular economy patterns.
A key strategy towards sustainable urban development is designing cities for increased circular metabolism. The transformation of areas underused, such as urban rooftops, into productive spaces is being increasingly implemented as a result of associated multiple benefits. Rooftop greenhouses (RTGs) are an interesting option for exploiting urban rooftops with direct exposure to sunlight, reducing food miles and creating new agricultural spaces, while building-applied solar photovoltaic (BAPV) panels provide clean energy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. However, a proper assessment of environmental costs and benefits related to both systems is vital for a successful implementation. By means of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) method, modelled in the professional software SimaPro, this paper aims at comparing the environmental performance of different productive uses of rooftops under Mediterranean climatic conditions. The results showed that both systems are favourable and contribute to decreasing the environmental impacts thanks to the production of resources on-site. BAPV system shows the highest avoided burdens in comparison with RTG: for instance, the impacts generated by BAPV on climate change and fossil depletion categories, corresponding to - 430 kg CO2 eq/m2 and - 110 kg oil eq/m2 respectively (versus - 22 kg CO2 eq/m2 and - 4.7 kg oil eq/m2 in the RTG system), are around 20 times lower than RTG. Furthermore, a sensitivity analysis was performed through different scenarios, based on reductions or substitution of the most sensitive input flows, thus providing some useful tools for improved environmental performances. Attention to additional energy and material efficiency, in favour of the more environmentally sustainable choice, should remain a main point of investigation.
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