• Proceedings of the Korea Water Resources Association Conference
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• 2021.06a
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• pp.455-455
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• 2021

The Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) as an environmental impact assessment tool has received increasing attention over the years. Unlike the water footprint (WF) and carbon footprint (CF) assessments whose focus is only on a single environmental aspect, the LCA systematically analyzes the different impacts along the entire life cycle, making possible the identification of potential environmental tradeoffs. In Korea, LCA has drawn much attention from both industry and academia since the mid-90s. However, the level of Korea-related LCA studies with respect to different sectors in the past 20 years has not been analyzed. This study, therefore, sought to assess the status of environmental Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) studies in Korea, with a view to understanding the current level of sustainability reporting and identify potential research gaps. Online searches of English written articles published between 2000 and 2019 were conducted on Google, Google scholar, Scopus, and Web of Science databases using the Keywords "life cycle assessment", "lca", and "Korea." At the end of the search, about 88 LCA related studies were identified for Korea within the study period. Majority of these studies focused on the construction (49%) and energy (31%) sectors with fewer environmental studies on the transportation (9%), manufacturing (8%), agriculture (2%), and information and communication (1%) industries. Based on publication trend, results show that LCA studies in Korea have been on the rise in the past 20 years, even though the number of publications has not followed a constant pace. In comparison with the economic sectors of the country, reports show an inadequacy in the coverage of major industries of growing economic relevance like the tourism, health, and agriculture, suggesting a need to further increase and improve LCA related studies in these sectors.

• Advances in Energy Research
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.1-15
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• 2019

The objective of the study is to examine the relationship between water resources, energy demand, food production, and environmental pollutants in selected SAARC nations, namely, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka, during the period of 1990-2016. The results show that water, energy, and food (WEF) resources substantially affected air quality in the form of high mass carbon emissions, fossil fuel energy demand, methane discharges, nitrous oxide emissions, and greenhouse gas emissions in these countries. Food production and food deficit largely increase $CO_2$ emissions due to unsustainable production and malnutrition, while land use under cereal production increases $CH_4$ and $N_2O$ emissions. Electricity production escalates $CO_2$ emissions and fossil emissions across countries. The results support the carbon EKC hypothesis, while monotonic increasing function exists in case of fossil fuel energy. The study emphasizes the need to ensure environmental sustainability agenda by adopting cleaner production technologies in WEF resources.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.163-169
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• 2006

A Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) study was carried out to identify and improve the environmental aspects associated with the present incineration system of spent Li-ion batteries (LIBs) in Korea. The environmental impact associated with the landfill of the incineration ash was also assessed in this study, while so far it was excluded in most studies. It was found out that the $CO_{2}$ emission from the electricity generation as well as the incineration process and heavy metals emissions to air and water accounted for about 90% of total environmental impacts. In particular, the effect of the emission of heavy metals were dominant. In oder to improve the current incineration system environmentally, it is needed to incinerate the wastes like spent LIBs which contained relatively high portion of heavy metals separately from other combustible wastes. On the other hand, the effect of the landfill of ash after incineration was insignificant since the ash from the incineration process was chemically stable.

• International conference on construction engineering and project management
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• 2022.06a
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• pp.74-82
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• 2022

Improving long-term performance in highway projects is an imperative goal for public administrations. Project delivery and procurement methods might provide an opportunity to align design and construction processes with this goal. Previous studies have explored whether project delivery methods impact the long-term performance of highway projects. However, these studies did not focus specifically on how core elements within the procurement might relate to long-term performance. Thus, this research aims to fill this gap by exploring to what extent and how long-term evaluation criteria are considered in design-build best-value procurement of highway projects. To this end, content analysis was conducted on 100 projects procured between 2009 and 2019 by 19 DOTs across the U.S. The analysis of 365 evaluation criteria found that (1) roughly 11% of them related to long-term performance. (2) The weight given to these criteria in the overall technical proposal was lower than 30%. (3) Sixty-five percent (65%) of long-term evaluation criteria focused on design while 15% related to materials and technology, respectively. The results of this study are a first steppingstone to initiate a deep exploration of the relationship between procurement practices and actual project performance. Currently, with sustainability and life cycle assessments being top concerns in infrastructure projects, this line of research might be of particular interest to DOTs and highway agencies across the U.S. and worldwide.

• KIEAE Journal
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.121-129
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• 2014

As time passes, the aging of the plant building, the building's energy performance degradation than the initial plan does not express a situation could arise. This year, the certification of buildings certified in 2009 has expired for measures such as the situation required. In this study, management of national and international green building certification and re-certification was compared in two ways. First, the evaluation of green building certification system management assessments were compared. Second, the green building certification system for the re-certification analysis. As a result, G-SEED was not reflected life-cycle of building in management assessment and the commissioning of G-SEED is the UK and the U.S and other concepts of evaluation. In addition, the re-certification system is insufficient about substantial energy consumption of buildings. In this study, the revised the management assessments in conjunction with the re-certification system to manage the building is proposed to improve. In addition, the current evaluation of the existing building certification "existing building" and "building the first certified" as it is more efficient to separate the information into assessment was judged. Green building certification system to meet the purpose of management and operation, and disposal phases of the building to promote energy conservation and sustainability in order to the management a systematic and detailed evaluation and re-certification system developed for the revision of the specific items required and future research want to continue.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.291-298
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• 2023

This research evaluates the sustainability of gasifying livestock manure to produce fuel gas from an economic and carbon emission perspective. The entire process, including gasification, fuel gas purification, and pipeline installation to transport the produced fuel gas to the demanding industrial complex, is analyzed for realistic feasibility. The study is conducted using an ASPEN PLUS simulation with experimental data. The results of the economic and CO₂ life cycle assessments confirm that the fuel gas produced from livestock manure is competitive with natural gas despite having a lower calorific value. When used as a fuel with a high hydrogen content, the fuel gas emits less CO₂ per calorific value, making it more environmentally friendly. A scenario analysis is also performed to determine the expected economics, with price competitiveness being influenced by several factors. Although a significant decrease in natural gas prices could reduce the price competitiveness of the proposed process, it can still be supported by government policies. The cash flow analysis also confirms the economic viability of the process.