• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
• /
• v.34 no.1
• /
• pp.62-69
• /
• 2008

The life cycle assessment method for environmental impact assessment was used, in this study, to assess the production process of wheat flour which is the most important material in the food industry. Environmental impact assessments were compared between that of the Ministry of Environment, Republic of Korea (method I) with that of the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy (method II). Life cycle inventories (LCI) was performed using internal and external databases and the production statistics database of company S. The procedure of life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) was followed in terms of classification, characterization, normalization and weighting to identify the key issues. The impact categories of method I were divided into 8 categories with consideration of : abiotic resources depletion, global warming, ozone depletion, photochemical oxidant creation, acidification and eutrophication. The impact categories of method II were divided into 10 categories with consideration of: abiotic resources depletion, global warming, ozone depletion, photochemical oxidant creation, acidification, eutrophication, human toxicity, freshwater aquatic ecotoxicity, marine aquatic ecotoxicity and terrestrial ecotoxicity.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
• /
• v.23 no.6
• /
• pp.1067-1074
• /
• 2014

Life Cycle Assessment(LCA) has been carried out to evaluate the environmental impacts of glass bottle recycle. The LCA consists of four stages such as Goal and Scope Definition, Life Cycle Inventory(LCI) Analysis, Life Cycle Impact Assessment(LCIA), and Interpretation. The LCI analysis showed that the major input materials were water, materials, sand, and crude oil, whereas the major output ones were wastewater, $CO_2$, and non-hazardous wastes. The LCIA was conducted for the six impact categories including 'Abiotic Resource Depletion', 'Acidification', 'Eutrophication', 'Global Warming', 'Ozone Depletion', and 'Photochemical Oxidant Creation'. As for Abiotic Resource Depletion, Acidification, and Photochemical Oxidant Creation, Bunker fuel oil C and LNG were major effects. As for Eutrophication, electricity and Bunker fuel oil C were major effects. As for Global Warming, electricity and LNG were major effects. As for Ozone Depletion, plate glasses were major effects. Among the six categories, the biggest impact potential was found to be Global Warming as 97% of total, but the rest could be negligible.

• Clean Technology
• /
• v.15 no.3
• /
• pp.224-230
• /
• 2009

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) has been studied on the reuse of glass bottles. The system boundary in this study encompassed from gate to gate such as production and transportation. A 360 mL volume of a glass bottle was selected as the functional unit. The environmental impact assessments was studied on 6 categories including abiotic resource depletion, acidification, eutrophication, global warming, ozone depletion, and photochemical oxidant creation. The results showed that the most significant impact categories were abiotic resource depletion (48.63%) and global warming (46.27%), and the rest categories revealed insignificant impacts. In the whole system, the chemicals used for the new bottle production revealed the major contribution to the environmental impacts (71.24%), followed by the use of electricity (16.74%) and transportation (11.8%). In addition, the environmental impact of sodium silicate to be put into the stage of the new bottle production was found to be 45.68%, causing severe influence on abiotic resource depletion and global warming.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Railway
• /
• v.8 no.6 s.31
• /
• pp.581-585
• /
• 2005

In this study, the environmental impacts of a bogie in the electric motor unit(EMU) were evaluated quantitatively using simplified life cycle assessment(S_LCA). Target was the bogie and life cycle inventory(LCI) database for the bogie was established. The software used for simplified LCA was PASS. Environmental impacts with the parts of the bogie were dependent on their weight significantly. Among impact categories, abiotic resource depletion(ARD) and global warming(GW) were shown dominantly. Global warming was occurred mainly due to the emission of CO₂released from energy consumption and abiotic resource depletion was caused mostly by the consumption of iron ore for the manufacturing of steel. Therefore, the environmental impacts of the bogie could be reduced by the light-weighting of EMU and the improvement of energy efficiency.

• Journal of Fisheries and Marine Sciences Education
• /
• v.27 no.2
• /
• pp.516-525
• /
• 2015

In this study, Life Cycle Assessment(LCA) was applied to the production processes of waste cooking oil recycling products. Recycling products as defined in the Law of Saving of Resources and Recycling Promotion are biodiesel and soap. Weighting result of biodiesel production process showed that the most significant impact potential was abiotic resource depletion(84.17%) followed by global warming(13.93%). In the case of the soap, the most significant impact potential was also abiotic resource depletion(58.59%) followed by global warming(33.71%). In terms of the whole system of the biodiesel production process, methanol showed the largest environmental impact potential(87.35%). While in the case of the soap, sodium chloride showed the largest environmental impact potential(99.99%). This study suggests that there should be improvement of the methanol recovery system in the biodiesel production process and also appropriate use of the major environmental impact materials in both processes.

• International conference on construction engineering and project management
• /
• 2013.01a
• /
• pp.196-203
• /
• 2013

Environmental problems like global warming have now become important issues that should be considered in all industries, including construction. In South Korea, many studies have been conducted to achieve the government's goals of reduction in environmental impacts. However, the research on buildings has only focused on CO₂ emission as a research target despite the fact that other environmental impacts resulting from ozone depletion and acidification should also be considered, in addition to global warming. In this regard, this study attempted to propose assessment criteria and methods to evaluate the environmental performance of the structures from various aspects. The environmental impact category can be divided into global impacts, regional impacts, and local impacts. First, global impacts include global warming, ozone layer depletion, and abiotic resource depletion, while regional impacts include acidification, eutrophication, and photochemical oxidation. In addition, noise and vibration occurring in the building construction phase are defined as local impacts. The evaluation methods on the eight environmental impacts will be proposed after analyzing existing studies, and the methods representing each environmental load as monetary value will be presented. The methods presented in this study will present benefits that can be obtained through green buildings with a clear quantitative assessment on structures. Ultimately, it is expected that if the effects of green buildings are clearly presented through the findings of this study, the greening of structures will be actively expanded.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
• /
• v.39 no.12
• /
• pp.698-705
• /
• 2017

Environmental impact of a mobile phone charger containing recycled plastic was quantified using LCA and the environmental benefits from the use of recycled and virgin plastic were compared. The assessment considers potential environmental impacts across the whole life cycle of the charger including; pre-manufacturing; manufacturing; distribution; product use; and end-of-life stages and quantified six environmental impact categories; Abiotic depletion; Acidification; Eutrophication; Global warming; Ozone layer depletion; and Photochemical oxidants creation. The study showed that the environmental impacts of the use stage accounted for 94.4% and 70% in the resource depletion and global warming impact categories, respectively, and the environmental impacts of the pre - manufacturing stage accounted for more than 98% in the other impact categories. The main cause of the environmental impacts in the use stage was electricity consumed by the charger. The main cause in the pre-manufacturing stage was PBA (Printed Board Assembly) and external case manufacturing. In order to quantify the environmental benefits of recycled PC (Polycarbonate) in the exterior case, the environmental impacts of 1 kg production of recycled PC and virgin PC were evaluated. The environmental impact on the abiotic depletion of the recycled PC is estimated to be 30% compared to the virgin PC, and the impacts on the other impact categories of the recycled PC were less than 5% of the virgin plastic. Sensitivity analysis was performed for 12 items including site data and assumptions made. The sensitivity of each item was less than 10%. The results of this study confirm that designing compact and light PBA, improving charging efficiency, and use of recycled plastic are important design factors to reduce the environmental impact of a charger.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
• /
• v.29 no.1
• /
• pp.111-116
• /
• 2018

The environmental impacts of a 1 kW polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) system are quantitatively assessed by performing a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) study. A PEMFC system produces electricity and heat simultaneously, so an appropriate allocation of associated inputs and outputs is performed between the electricity and heat produced. The environmental impacts of the PEMFC system on the impact categories such as global warming (GW), abiotic depletion (AD), acidification (AC), and eutrophication (EU) are assessed from the life cycle impact assessment. The impact indicator results of the impact assessment on these impact categories are obtained as $3.70E-01kg\;CO_2\;eq./kWh$, 1.86E-03 kg Sb eq./kWh, $4.09E-04kg\;SO_2\;eq./kWh$, and $1.88E-05kg\;PO_4{^{3-}}/kWh$, respectively. For all impact categories studied the most influential stage is the operation stage, which accounts for 98.8%, 98.7%, 70.3%, and 62.3% of the total impact on GW, AD, AC, and EU, respectively. For the impact categories of AD, AC, and EU, most of the environmental impacts during the operation stage is attributed to the production of city gas. However, for the impact category of GW, $CO_2$ emission from the reforming process of city gas is the main reason for the largest contribution of the operation stage to the total impact results.

• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
• /
• v.50 no.1
• /
• pp.65-76
• /
• 2017

Since the late 1990s, walleye pollock Gadus chalcogrammus fisheries in Korean waters have been considered collapsed. Although many fisheries scientists suspect that the collapse might have been triggered by overexploitation of juvenile pollock or environmental changes, such conjectures have been neither tested nor investigated, partially because of limited data on the population. There has been no survey of the population, and the ages of fish in fishery catch have rarely been identified. Instead, fishery catch data from 1975-1997 included information about two life stages, 'juveniles and adults,' and data on catch-per-unit-effort (CPUE) during 1963-2007 and those on fish length and weight during 1965-2003 had been sporadically collected from commercial fisheries. To test hypotheses about the collapse of the pollock fisheries, we used a statistical linear model with juvenile CPUE as the response variable, and abiotic (e.g., water temperatures) and biotic factors [e.g., adult pollock, flatfishes (Pleuronectidae sp.), and sandfish (Arctoscopus japonicus) CPUEs] as the explanatory variables. The model results indicated that depletion of the pollock population was associated with both biotic (adult pollock and flatfishes abundance) and abiotic factors (mid-water temperatures in February and October). We further interpreted the results from ecological and biological perspectives, suggesting possible mechanisms.

• Journal of Korea Technical Association of The Pulp and Paper Industry
• /
• v.36 no.1
• /
• pp.49-60
• /
• 2004

Life Cycle Assessment for the pulp, which is mainly used as the raw material of fine paper, base paper for food packaging and paper cup, has been carried out in this study to consider environmental aspects by quantifying the environmental emission and to evaluate its environmental impact potential. The system boundary was selected from cradle to gate stage(raw material acquisition, transportation of raw material and product manufacturing) of the product. Environmental impact was divided into 8 categories considering Korean situation: abiotic resource depletion, global warming, ozone depletion, acidification, eutrophication, photochemical oxidant creation, ecotoxicity and human toxicity. In Life Cycle Impact Assessment(LCIA) methodology phase, Ecopoint, Eco-indicator 95 and Korean eco-indicator were used and the results carried out by each methodology were compared. The results from this study were also compared with those of foreign study to verify the reliability of the results. The results of the study could be utilized as the basic data for Environmental Management System(EMS), Design for Environment(DfE) and Type III eco-labeling in the paper and paper-related industry.