Introduction: Due to Brazil’s geographic location, the country is well-positioned to generate ene... more Introduction: Due to Brazil’s geographic location, the country is well-positioned to generate energy from renewable sources. With high levels of solar irradiation, the use of photovoltaic (PV) solar energy has grown in recent years, and installations are expected to continue increasing. Assessing lifecycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions associated with installing PV systems is key to determining net emissions reductions and evaluating the potential to reduce the carbon footprint of existing PV systems. Materials and methods: This work evaluates the carbon footprint of two rooftop PV systems and one carport PV system installed in São Paulo, Brazil, considering a 30-year lifetime. The lifecycle assessment (LCA) system boundary encompasses manufacturing, PV module installation, and the balance of systems (BOS). We have collected data from Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) and PV system installation monitoring. Results: Although the electricity-normalized module emissions for the rooftop and carport systems were 13 and 8 g of CO2-equivalent per kilowatt-hour (gCO2e/kWh), respectively, the carport installation had the highest emissions per unit of energy (18 gCO2e/kWh) because its BOS had the highest emissions (10 gCO2e/kWh). Conclusions: The carbon footprint of rooftop systems was lower than that of the carport system, and BOS emissions were a significant share of the carport’s total. Module manufacturing also contributed significantly, and the carport allows the installation of bifacial modules, which increase electricity generation. Aluminum accounted for a significant share of BOS GHG emissions, so procurement of low-carbon aluminum should be considered.
Qualificação de profissionais para avaliação do desempenho ambiental da construção: resultados de um curso de extensão online oferecido pela Universidade de São Paulo
Proceedings of the L Brasilian Congress of Engineering Education, 2022
Emissões de carbono das famílias brasileiras por meio da POF e da matriz de insumo-produto Resumo... more Emissões de carbono das famílias brasileiras por meio da POF e da matriz de insumo-produto Resumo: O objetivo deste trabalho é analisar a pegada de carbono das famílias brasileiras com base na Pesquisa de Orçamentos Familiares (POF) de 2008 e 2018. A metodologia utilizada neste artigo foi uma Avalição de Ciclo de Vida híbrida. Segundo os nossos resultados, as famílias da classe de renda inferior emitiram cerca de 4,04 tCO 2 e/ano em 2008 e 3,81 tCO 2 e/ano em 2018, em contrapartida, as famílias da classe de renda mais alta emitiram cerca de 28,73 tCO 2 e/ano em 2008 e 25,94 tCO 2 e/ano em 2018, quase 7 vezes mais do que as famílias da classe de renda inferior. Enquanto as famílias mais pobres, que representavam 24,25% do total de famílias brasileiras em 2018, foram responsáveis por 11,97% do total de emissões, as famílias mais ricas foram responsáveis por 8,31% do total de emissões, embora representassem apenas 2,47% do total de famílias em 2018. Os mais ricos devem considerar uma mudança no seu padrão de consumo e buscar alternativas que impliquem em menos emissões para diminuir suas pegadas de carbono.
This paper discusses the oil palm expansion in the State of Par a, located in the Brazilian Amazo... more This paper discusses the oil palm expansion in the State of Par a, located in the Brazilian Amazon. It focuses on land use change aspects put in perspective with the sustainability criteria for biofuels of the European Renewable Energy Directive (RED). The study shows that palm oil production for energy purposes appears very promising in Brazil. In parallel to local targets, the mandatory European biofuel targets represent an important market potential for the country. It seems too early to know whether the export of palm oil biodiesel from Brazil to Europe will be significant or not. However, it is likely that palm oil exports for biodiesel production in Europe occur in the coming years. Although the RED includes some essential conditions for sustainable production of biofuels, we argue that the values imposed for calculating carbon stocks do not reflect diversity of pastureland where oil palm expansion occurs in the Brazilian Amazon. The use of certain land areas authorised within the RED may also represent a significant limit in terms of biodiversity protection. This study provides new insights that may be used to improve life cycle assessment of biodiesel from palm oil in order to avoid unintended policy consequences.
Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from hydroelectric dams are often portrayed as nonexistent by the ... more Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from hydroelectric dams are often portrayed as nonexistent by the hydropower industry and have been largely ignored in global comparisons of different sources of electricity. However, the life cycle assessment (LCA) of any hydroelectric plant shows that GHG emissions occur at different phases of the power plant's life. This work examines the role of decommissioning hydroelectric dams in greenhouse gas emissions. Accumulated sediments in reservoirs contain noticeable levels of carbon, which may be released to the atmosphere upon decommissioning of the dam. The rate of sediment accumulation and the sediment volume for six of the ten largest United States hydroelectric power plants is surveyed. The amount of sediments and the respective carbon content at the moment of dam decommissioning (100 years after construction) was estimated. The released carbon is partitioned into CO 2 and CH 4 emissions and converted to CO 2 equivalent emissions using the global warming potential (GWP) method. The global warming effect (GWE) due to dam decommissioning is normalized to the total electricity produced over the lifetime of each power plant. The estimated GWE of the power plants range from 128-380 g of CO 2 eq./kWh when 11% of the total available sediment organic carbon (SOC) is mineralized and between 35 and 104 g of CO 2 eq./kWh when 3% of the total SOC is mineralized. Though these values are below emission factors for coal power plants (890 g of CO 2 eq./kWh), the amount of greenhouse gases emitted by the sediments upon dam decommissioning is a notable amount that should not be ignored and must be taken into account when considering construction and relicensing of hydroelectric dams.
This article assesses the life cycle emissions of a fictive onshore wind power station consisting... more This article assesses the life cycle emissions of a fictive onshore wind power station consisting of 141.5-MW wind turbines situated on the northeastern coast of Brazil. The objective is to identify the main sources of CO 2(eq)-emissions during the life cycle of the wind farm. The novelty of this work lies in the focus on Brazil and its emerging national manufacturing industry. With an electricity matrix that is primarily based on renewable energy sources (87% in 2010), this country emits eight times less CO 2 for the production of 1 kWh of electricity than the global average. Although this fact jeopardizes the CO 2 mitigation potential of wind power projects, it also reduces the carbon footprint of parts and components manufactured in Brazil. The analysis showed that reduced CO 2-emissions in the material production stage and the low emissions of the component production stage led to a favorable CO 2-intensity of 7.1 g CO 2 /kWh. The bulk of the emissions, a share of over 90%, were unambiguously caused by the production stage, and the transportation stage was responsible for another 6% of the CO 2-emissions. The small contributions from the construction and operation phases could be neglected. Within the manufacturing process, the steel tower was identified as the source responsible for more than half of the emissions. The environmental impacts of the wind farm are small in terms of CO 2-emissions, which can be credited to a green electricity mix. This scenario presents an advantage for the country and for further production sites, particularly in the surroundings of the preferred wind farm sites in Brazil, which should be favored to reduce CO 2 emissions to an even greater extent.
Renewable & Sustainable Energy Reviews, Mar 1, 2014
Environmental concerns and the search for climate change mitigation have led to the deployment of... more Environmental concerns and the search for climate change mitigation have led to the deployment of renewable energy technologies (RET) in several countries. The adoption of incentive policies, especially those based on heavy subsides, has motivated the discussion of social and economic benefits brought about by these technologies, mainly on the impact on employment rates. In this context, several studies have been conducted to quantify job creation by RET, concluding that the latter are more labor intensive than traditional fossil fueled technologies. However, results for different assessments vary largely due to distinct methodological approaches, and are frequently highly aggregated. Thus, results are not comparable or applicable to other contexts. Previous studies have failed to quantify the effects of imports and exports of RET equipment in total employment, usually associating employment and installed capacity in the year studied. This study has aimed to address these issues, creating an index for employment quantification based on production, instead of installed, capacity. We have estimated both direct jobs in manufacture, construction, and operation and management, and indirect jobs both in the upstream supply chains of materials and inputs to manufacture of wind turbines and construction of wind farms. We have also performed an assessment of jobs created in wind energy projects which are expected to begin operation in Brazil until 2017. The resulting job potential in Brazil corresponds to13.5 persons-year equivalent for each MW installed between manufacture and first year of operation of a wind power plant, and 24.5 persons-year equivalent over the wind farm lifetime. Results show that major contribution from wind power for job creation are in the construction stage and, despite of the low amount of jobs created in operation and maintenance relative to new installed capacity, those stable jobs stand out as they persist over the entire wind farm's life time.
Scope 3 Emissions of Higher Education: Review of Methods
University Initiatives on Climate Change Education and Research
Corrigendum to “Environmental performance of an integrated water supply and wastewater system through life cycle assessment — A Brazilian case study” [Sci. Total Environ. 835 (2022) 155213 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.155213 (August 2022)]
Science of The Total Environment
Energy efficiency intervention in urea processes by recovering the excess pressure through hydraulic power recovery Turbines (HPRTs)
Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments
Environmental performance of an integrated water supply and wastewater system through life cycle assessment — A Brazilian case study
Science of The Total Environment
The objective of this study was to evaluate the environmental performance of an integrated water ... more The objective of this study was to evaluate the environmental performance of an integrated water supply and wastewater system that employs a system of ponds at the wastewater treatment system. Additionally, this study aimed to understand the contribution of each stage of the system to the analyzed impact categories, and to evaluate alternative scenarios that consider the reduction of water losses in distribution, as well as the operation of an upflow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) reactor in the wastewater treatment plant (WWTP). The evaluation was performed through life cycle assessment (LCA) that considered the stages of water withdrawal, treatment, and distribution along with wastewater collection and treatment. The system was modeled in the OpenLCA software using the Ecoinvent 3.7.1 database. Environmental impacts were assessed using the ReCiPe method and cumulative energy demand. The results show that the water withdrawal stage is the potential source of the greatest environmental impacts. There are exceptions in the categories of climate change and photochemical oxidant formation, which are most impacted by the WWTP. Analysis of alternative scenarios revealed that the decrease in water loss rates during distribution contribute to a linear reduction in potential environmental impacts of the analyzed categories. The operation of a UASB reactor in the WWTP leads to a reduction in impacts on the categories of climate change (41.4%) and formation of photochemical oxidants (11.6%), and to increases in impacts on the other categories analyzed. The data presented provide important information for the improvement of public policies aimed at sanitation in developing countries.
Photovoltaic energy: environmental and economic analysis of axis solar trackers for photovoltaic installations; Energia fotovoltaica: analise economica ambiental de seguidores solares para instalacoes fotovoltaicas
Potential CO2reduction and uptake due to industrialization and efficient cement use in Brazil by 2050
Journal of Industrial Ecology, 2021
Cement production contributes 8–9% of all anthropogenic CO2 emissions worldwide, and further incr... more Cement production contributes 8–9% of all anthropogenic CO2 emissions worldwide, and further increases in the future are expected. Traditional solutions for reducing emissions, including energy efficiency, using alternative fuels, and clinker‐to‐cement ratio reduction, are insufficient to ensure the necessary mitigation. Based on the concept of material efficiency, this study identifies new alternatives for reducing CO2 emissions by adopting a set of technological solutions to increase the industrialization of cement‐based products and the use of fillers considering a cradle‐to‐use approach. Besides, increasing the filler content in mortars and plain concrete is a desirable strategy, because it increases the carbonation rate, accelerating the CO2 sequestration from the atmosphere. Based on data from the Brazilian cement industry technology roadmap, this study quantitatively evaluates, up to 2050, the CO2 mitigation potential and the reduction of cement consumption for each adopted technological solution. The marginal abatement costs are also included to quantify each considered solution's cost‐effectiveness and compared with alternatives like carbon capture and storage. The results show that increasing the cement use efficiency enables CO2 emissions reduction by up to 45% by 2050, with a cost of USD –1.36 for each avoided metric ton of CO2, while accelerating the mortar carbonation rate. This article met the requirements for a gold–gold JIE data openness badge described in http://jie.click/badges.
Uploads
Papers by sergio pacca