Circular economy performance assessment methods: A systematic literature review

Sassanelli, Claudio; Rosa, Paolo; Rocca, Roberto La; Terzi, Sergio

doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.05.019

Cited by 472 publications

(326 citation statements)

References 52 publications

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“…Nowadays, biomass itself is responsible for 10% primary energy consumption worldwide [5] and it can be used as a promising feedstock for biofuel production. The sustainability of wastes and by-products as a biofuel for the transportation sector in a circular economy has been studied in the literature, in order to make the biogas-biomethane chain more sustainable [6][7][8]. These studies show the positive impact of biofuels in the transportation section in Europe.…”

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confidence: 99%

Bioenergy Yields from Sequential Bioethanol and Biomethane Production: An Optimized Process Flow

et al. 2019

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This study investigates the potential of different stages of the bioethanol production process (pretreatment, hydrolysis, and distillation) for bioethanol and biomethane production, and studies the critical steps for the liquid and the solid fractions to be separated and discarded to improve the efficiency of the production chain. For this, Napier grass (a fast-growing grass) from Effurun town of Delta State in Nigeria was used and the novel pretreatment method, nitrogen explosive decompression (NED), was applied at different temperatures. The results show that the lowest glucose (13.7 g/L) and ethanol titers (8.4 g/L) were gained at 150 • C. The highest glucose recovery (31.3 g/L) was obtained at 200 • C and the maximum ethanol production (10.3 g/L) at 170 • C. Methane yields are higher in samples pretreated at lower temperatures. The maximum methane yields were reported in samples from the solid fraction of post-pretreatment (pretreated at 150 • C, 1.13 mol CH4/100 g) and solid fraction of the post-hydrolysis stage (pretreated at 150 • C, 1.00 mol CH4/100 g). The lowest biomethane production was noted in samples from the liquid fraction of post-pretreatment broth (between 0.14 mol CH4/100 g and 0.24 mol CH4/100 g). From the process point of view, samples from liquid fraction of post-pretreatment broth should be separated and discarded from the bioethanol production process, since they do not add value to the production chain. The results suggest that bioethanol and biomethane concentrations are influenced by the pretreatment temperature. Napier grass has potential for bioethanol and further biomethane production and it can be used as an alternative source of energy for the transportation sector in Nigeria and other countries rich in grasses and provide energy security to their population.alternative sources of energy that will decrease the share of fossil fuels utilised in the transportation sector and productive uses, reduce environmental concerns caused by the extensive utilization of these resources (e.g., climate change and global warming), increase energy security, and improve the access of the population to electricity. Renewable energy sources from lignocellulosic biomass have been reported as promising solutions to these problems [4]. Nowadays, biomass itself is responsible for 10% primary energy consumption worldwide [5] and it can be used as a promising feedstock for biofuel production. The sustainability of wastes and by-products as a biofuel for the transportation sector in a circular economy has been studied in the literature, in order to make the biogas-biomethane chain more sustainable [6][7][8]. These studies show the positive impact of biofuels in the transportation section in Europe. However, further research needs to be done in order to apply circular economy models to emerging economies.Sub-Saharan Africa has great potential to develop renewable energy sources, such as wind, biomass, solar, and hydro. Just in Nigeria, the biomass potential is about 144 million tonnes per year and the potenti...

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Bioenergy Yields from Sequential Bioethanol and Biomethane Production: An Optimized Process Flow

et al. 2019

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“…Since accounting ratios, corporate governance factors, and macro-environmental factors should be adopted as criteria to evaluate the financial sustainability of MFIs from a cross-country perspective, the evaluation can be regarded as typical a multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) problem [16]. Many mathematical methods have been proposed for MCDM, such as weighted sum model, weighted product model, analytic hierarchy process method (AHP), revised AHP, elimination et choice translating reality method, and TOPSIS [52]. These models are suitable for handling MCDM problems.…”

Section: Evaluating the Financial Sustainability Of Mfis Using An Impmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evaluating the Sustainability of Microfinance Institutions Considering Macro-Environmental Factors: A Cross-Country Study

Liu

2019

Sustainability

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Microfinance institutions (MFIs) have attracted great attention, due to their significant role in poverty reduction. Given the features of MFIs, this paper proposes a novel hybrid model of soft set theory, and an improved order preference by similarity to ideal solution (HMSIT) to evaluate the sustainability of MFIs, considering accounting ratios, corporate governance factors, and macro-environmental factors, from a cross-country perspective. This setting enables the examination of the role of macro-environmental factors in the sustainability of MFIs. For this purpose, soft set theory is adopted to select optimal criteria. An improved order preference by similarity to ideal solution method, in which the weight of each criterion is determined by soft set theory, is proposed to rank the sustainability of MFIs. This algorithm enables HMSIT to make full use of various types of information. The case study uses cross-country samples. Results indicate that macro-environmental factors are significant in evaluating the sustainability of MFIs from a cross-country perspective. Particularly, they can play a key role in distinguishing MFIs with low sustainability. The results also indicate that HMSIT has strong robustness. Ranked results, produced from the proposed HMSIT are reliable enough to provide some managerial suggestions for MFIs and help stakeholders make decisions.

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“…More and more enterprises include environmental and social criteria in management and strive to reduce the degradative impact and negative effects of their activities. These activities are determined by various administrative and legal instruments and solutions undertaken at the level of international economic policy, as well as the expectations and growing requirements of various stakeholder groups [2] of which consumers are the most important group. Currently, there are changes in their behavior.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sustainable packaging as a tool for global sustainable development

Kozik

2020

SHS Web Conf.

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In various areas of human activity more attention is paid to environmental and ecological problems and also social issues. International enterprises take into account these criteria in management and strive to reduce the degradative impact and negative effects of their activities. These activities include the global concepts of sustainable development, circular economy and social responsibility. These concepts are also increasingly taken into account by companies from the packaging industry. For this reason, more often we hear about the so-called “sustainable packaging”, which is a consequence of the above actions and brings new opportunities in the environmental, economic, ethical and social aspects. The aim of the article was to characterize sustainable packaging. Based on the literature, sustainable packaging was defined, at the same time indicating that although this definition shows how to improve the packaging present on the global market, it should also be constantly improved and adapted to the changing market, society or environment requirements, as well as the state and development of the packaging industry. Examples of companies’ around the world activities in the field of creating sustainable packaging were also presented.

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Circular economy performance assessment methods: A systematic literature review

Cited by 472 publications

References 52 publications

Bioenergy Yields from Sequential Bioethanol and Biomethane Production: An Optimized Process Flow

Bioenergy Yields from Sequential Bioethanol and Biomethane Production: An Optimized Process Flow

Evaluating the Sustainability of Microfinance Institutions Considering Macro-Environmental Factors: A Cross-Country Study

Sustainable packaging as a tool for global sustainable development

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