Examinando por Autor "Martín-Gamboa, Mario"

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1er Workshop esLCAGestión del ciclo de vida en los sectores de laconstrucción y de la energía. Libro de Abstracts
(Servicio de Publicaciones de la Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, 2016) Martín-Gamboa, Mario; Iribarren, Diego; Dufour, Javier
El Análisis del Ciclo de Vida (ACV) y otras metodologías derivadas como las huellas de carbono e hídrica son actualmente herramientas ampliamente reconocidas para evaluar la viabilidad ambiental de procesos y productos, como demuestra, a nivel español, el Real Decreto 163/2014 por el que se crea el registro de huella de carbono o, a nivel europeo, la creación de la Plataforma Europea de Análisis del Ciclo de Vida y la identificación del ACV dentro del programa marco Horizon 2020 como una herramienta clave para la toma de decisiones y la elaboración de políticas. España dispone de diferentes grupos trabajando en el campo del ACV que son referencia a nivel mundial. La Red de Excelencia esLCA pretende potenciar las sinergias entre todos los grupos, dando un salto cualitativo que permita afrontar de forma efectiva los retos pendientes en materia de ACV. Esto supondría un gran paso en cuanto a la fiabilidad de los análisis de sostenibilidad asociados, posibilitando una mejor toma de decisiones a diferentes escalas (política, industrial, etc.).
Assessing the circularity of post-consumer HDPE milk bottles through open-loop recycling and their environmental impact
(Elsevier, 2024-06) Blanco, Aymara; Juan, Rafael; Istrate, Robert; Paredes, Beatriz; Martín-Gamboa, Mario; Domínguez, Carlos; Dufour, Javier; García-Muñoz, Rafael A.
Plastics are key in the packaging sector, but their widespread use contributes significantly to environmental challenges, such as the short life and high daily production of HDPE milk bottles. This study therefore aims to find a solution to this plastic waste, focusing on mechanical recycling. A comprehensive characterization of this post-consumer recycled HDPE reveals significant PP contamination, which poses a significant barrier due to polyolefin incompatibility, a common challenge in mixed plastics recycling. To mitigate this, blending with virgin HDPE and the use of various compatibilizers were investigated to improve the recyclability of the material. Several extrusion cycles were performed to analyse the thermo-mechanical degradation and to measure the performance and stability of the blends. The environmental impact of incorporating recycled HDPE into new bottles was also evaluated. Comparative evaluations with virgin bottles show that incorporating 25% or 50% recycled HDPE in the bottle yields carbon footprint reductions of 3% and 14%, respectively. These benefits could amplify with a wind-powered supply chain and a 100% recycled content. The findings lay the foundation for future plastic recycling scenarios, including dedicated sorting for this waste stream, providing a pathway to address the environmental impact of HDPE milk bottle disposal through recycling practices
Assessing the social life cycle impacts of the Spanish electricity mix: A decadal analysis
(Elsevier, 2024-09) Berridy-Segade, Luisa; Díaz de Mera Sánchez, María del Prado; Reyes-Belmonte, Miguel Ángel; Martín-Gamboa, Mario
Power generation systems are crucial to national energy transitions, such as Spain's, which stands as a notable example. However, this profound transformation could have multifaceted implications, leading to unintended consequences on society. The present work is the first to understand the social impacts of the Spanish power sector and their technology supply chains using the social life cycle sssessment methodology. The functional unit is 1 kWh of electricity produced by the technologies in the Spanish electricity mix. A cradle-to-gate approach is taken using a supply chain protocol to complete the system boundaries. The social life cycle inventory, comprising data on national suppliers, working hours and social flows, was integrated into the PSILCA database to derive the social profile of each power technology and, consequently, to obtain a comprehensive view of the Spanish power sector. The results reveal that social impact associated with the Spanish electricity mix has increased or remained stable from 2010 to 2022. Analysis of four indicators (child labour, contribution of the sector to the economic development, frequency of forced labour and women in the sectoral labour force) reveals significant differences, highlighting three main social hotspots: i) solar PV panel production in East and Southeast Asia, particularly China, ii) natural gas extraction and refining in North Africa, concentrated in Algeria, for natural gas combined cycle and cogeneration plants, and iii) construction and operation of hydropower and nuclear plants in Spain. This study demonstrates that current strategies for Spain's power sector transition may not guarantee a favourable social performance, emphasizing the need for balanced environmental and social considerations in energy policy making, aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals
Definition, assessment and prioritisation of strategies to mitigate social life-cycle impacts across the supply chain of bioelectricity: A case study in Portugal
(Elsevier, 2022) Martín-Gamboa, Mario; Dias, Ana Cláudia; Iribarren, Diego
A key goal in sustainable supply chain management is the minimisation of risk across supply chains. However, this is jeopardised by underdeveloped aspects such as social risk management, especially in the case of energy systems as they involve complex supply chains. This article constitutes the first time that Social Life Cycle Assessment (S-LCA) is used to lay the foundation for a methodological framework to define, assess and prioritise strategies oriented towards the minimisation of social life-cycle impacts across the supply chain of energy products. This framework combines S-LCA, a novel approach to the definition of alternative supply chain strategies, and multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA). It was demonstrated through a case study of bioelectricity in Portugal by defining and assessing fifteen strategies on the specific supply chains of oil and fertilisers to check their suitability to enhance the system's social life-cycle performance. The weighted sum method (WSM) and Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) were used as MCDA tools to further support decision-making by prioritising strategies. According to the results for a set of six social indicators, the strategies proposed on the supply of oil and nitrogen-based fertilisers were deemed suitable trade-off solutions to mitigate the social life-cycle impact of the bioelectricity system.
Environmental life cycle assessment of UV-C LEDs vs. mercury lamps and oxidant selection for diclofenac degradation
(Elsevier, 2024) Pizzichetti, Raffaella; Martín-Gamboa, Mario; Pablos, Cristina; Reynolds, Ken; Stanley, Simon; Dufour, Javier; Marugán, Javier
This study is the first environmental comparison between a UV-C LED lamp (emitting at 265 nm) and mercury lamps employed in a lab-scale photoreactor for water treatment purification purposes, using the removal of diclofenac as a case study. Ex-ante life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology was used as a robust method to identify hotspots and recommendations at the early stage of the UV-C LEDs technology. The functional unit was defined as “the treatment of 1 L of polluted water with 20 mg L−1 of diclofenac to achieve a 90% removal of the contaminant”, while the system boundaries include the production and the operation of the photoreactors, following a cradle-to-gate approach. Several scenarios were explored, and overall, the UV-C LED lamp shows a promising environmental performance, with less or similar potential impacts than the mercury lamps in the 16 categories selected from the Environmental Footprint (EF) method. In particular, it reveals less impact in “human toxicity non-cancer” and “resource use minerals and metals” and presents electricity as the main source of impact. Given the higher efficacy of the UV-driven advanced oxidation processes compared to the UV irradiation alone, and since no studies have previously been conducted on the sustainability of free chlorine (FC) as an oxidant in water treatment, a comparison between UV-C, UV-C/H2O2, and UV-C/FC while employing the 265 nm UV-C LED lamp was also assessed. UV-C/H2O2 was more sustainable than UV-C/FC for the same treatment time, but both led to an overall impact reduction of 35% and 30%, respectively. To increase sustainability, employing cleaner energy sources such as photovoltaic or wind energy also resulted in an 80% and 93% reduction in the “climate change” category. Overall, this study demonstrates that using UV-C LEDs and the selected oxidants for water purification is beneficial and encourages the scale-up of the system.