Research Publications

Although Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) has become an important tool in the context of environmental and industrial analysis, its limitations keep it from achieving wider acceptance. One limitation is it...

The concept of dematerialization refers broadly to the reduction of materials used by society over time. Definitions of the term material use vary, but generally include some estimate of ecosystem ...

With the discovery of massive deposits of nickel in the 1920s, slave labor camps to mine these reserves soon followed, and the city of Norilsk was born. Officially founded in 1935 as the Norilsk Co...

This study is the second phase of a three-phase sustainability assessment of milk production by Aurora Organic Dairy (AOD).  AOD is a leading provider of private-label organic milk to retailers t...

Introduction Utilizing more efficient air conditioning equipment is an important strategy to curb residential energy consumption. The potential benefit from replacing an air conditioning unit wit...

Despite temporal changes in wholesale electricity prices, retail prices are typically constant throughout the day. To address this economic inefficiency, Detroit Edison, a subsidiary of DTE Energy (DT...

Part Six: National Innovation SystemsChapter 52: The U.S. National Innovation SystemThe United States of America (U.S.) has been heralded as the world's premier engine of technological advance. Howeve...

The geography of mineral resources and human settlement influences the production-consumption cycle of cement and other mined construction materials, and affects the energy, cost and environmental ...

Urban areas are home to more than half of the world's people, responsible for >70% of anthropogenic release of carbon dioxide and 76% of wood used for industrial purposes. By 2050 the proportion...

Utilizing more efficient central air conditioning equipment is one strategy to curb residential energy consumption. The average efficiency of air conditioning units sold tends to increase gradually ov...

In the fall of 2008, the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MI DEQ) Water Bureau Director established a wet weather program designed to improve the understanding of rules, policies and regu...

There is disagreement on whether the supply of lithium is adequate to support a future global fleet of electric vehicles. We report a comprehensive analysis of the global lithium resources and an asse...

Recent results in plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) power management research suggest that battery energy capacity requirements may be reduced through proper power management algorithm design. Sp...

This study analyzed the sustainability and environmental impact of indoor recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS) used for raising shrimp in the U.S. A life cycle analysis (LCA) was performed to evalu...

Temporal and regional variability in the technological characteristics of primary aluminum smelters affect life cycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions embodied not only in the production but also the tr...

Personal transportation accounts for 17 percent of total greenhouse gas emissions in the United States and must be a major component of any climate change mitigation plan. While technological advancem...

Gasoline and diesel automobiles dominate current personal transportation in the United States. The automotive industry has been developing PHEVs (plug in hybrid electric vehicles) in response to incre...

Pavement preservation (maintenance and rehabilitation) requires large resource investments and generates significant environmental impacts. A project-level pavement asset management system (PAMS) i...

The electrical consumption from central air conditioners currently accounts for about 14% of residential electrical use in the United States. Utilizing more efficient air conditioning units is one str...

Introduction: Conventionally CO2 abated by generating photovoltaic electricity has been evaluated using average grid fuel mix profiles at various scales. However at low capacity PV installations i...