A platform for research: civil engineering, architecture and urbanism
A platform for research: civil engineering, architecture and urbanism
Life Cycle Assessment of Emerging Technologies
The environmental impacts of emerging technologies are conventionally identified, regulated, and mitigated only after large-scale deployment. As a result, a considerable number of emerging technologies eventually develop into non-optimized systems, which translate into waste of resources and capitals, and hence reduced competitiveness. Therefore, it is paramount to assess emerging technologies during the nascent stages of their development and expand the conventional set of metrics of the assessment, thus enabling unbiased decisions on the deployment of the technology and promoting sustainable innovation. The challenge is to ensure that the outcomes of the assessment are not compromised by the uncertainties existing at such early stages of technology development. Building on these premises, the Thesis lays the foundations for producing high-fidelity and timely projections of environmental impacts and costs of emerging technologies, presenting an overarching framework for prospective assessments, and testing it on four emerging technologies originating from both academic and industrial R&D, at different stages of their process development: 1) production of formate using CO2 captured from the tail gases of power plants; 2) milli-continuous-flow production of gold nanoparticles for healthcare applications; 3) continuous-flow production of Rufinamide, an anticonvulsant drug; 4) intensified continuous-flow production of zeolite A. The results of the LCA of emerging technologies demonstrate that is possible to provide live and timely feedback to technology developers and identify intervention points and potential solutions for the optimization of the technology since the early stages. Furthermore, the proposed assessment allows to benchmark the performances of the system under analysis against the standard industrial practice, hence quantifying the benefits that would stem from the adoption of innovative production technologies in place of conventional ones. On the whole, LCA of emerging technologies offers an ...
Life Cycle Assessment of Emerging Technologies
The environmental impacts of emerging technologies are conventionally identified, regulated, and mitigated only after large-scale deployment. As a result, a considerable number of emerging technologies eventually develop into non-optimized systems, which translate into waste of resources and capitals, and hence reduced competitiveness. Therefore, it is paramount to assess emerging technologies during the nascent stages of their development and expand the conventional set of metrics of the assessment, thus enabling unbiased decisions on the deployment of the technology and promoting sustainable innovation. The challenge is to ensure that the outcomes of the assessment are not compromised by the uncertainties existing at such early stages of technology development. Building on these premises, the Thesis lays the foundations for producing high-fidelity and timely projections of environmental impacts and costs of emerging technologies, presenting an overarching framework for prospective assessments, and testing it on four emerging technologies originating from both academic and industrial R&D, at different stages of their process development: 1) production of formate using CO2 captured from the tail gases of power plants; 2) milli-continuous-flow production of gold nanoparticles for healthcare applications; 3) continuous-flow production of Rufinamide, an anticonvulsant drug; 4) intensified continuous-flow production of zeolite A. The results of the LCA of emerging technologies demonstrate that is possible to provide live and timely feedback to technology developers and identify intervention points and potential solutions for the optimization of the technology since the early stages. Furthermore, the proposed assessment allows to benchmark the performances of the system under analysis against the standard industrial practice, hence quantifying the benefits that would stem from the adoption of innovative production technologies in place of conventional ones. On the whole, LCA of emerging technologies offers an ...
Life Cycle Assessment of Emerging Technologies
Grimaldi, Fabio (author)
2021-04-28
Doctoral thesis, UCL (University College London).
Theses
Electronic Resource
English
DDC:
690
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