Semra Çoruh

As stated in the 2016 Paris Agreement, concerns about global climate change and carbon emissions have increased, and organizations, in particular, have embarked on an annual measurement process to estimate their contribution to global climate change. Carbon footprint, one of the measurement methods, is a widely applied tool to assess the environmental impact of organizations. This study presents a real case study of a denim-washing company’s activities based on ISO standard calculation methods of greenhouse gas emissions. Accordingly, the annual carbon footprint of the denim-washing company was 2482.09 tCO₂e for the year 2021 in total for the overall carbon footprint. Direct emission was calculated at 1575.75 tCO₂e, indirect energy–related emission at 798.09 tCO₂e, and indirect non-energy–related emission at 108.25 tCO₂e. The highest CO₂ emissions are related to heating from greenhouse gas direct emission sources, followed by purchased electricity consumption, and the lowest CO₂ emissions are related to fire–CO₂ tube storage. In conclusion, this study is particular in that it analyzes not only the specific processes of a denim-washing company but also the overall organizational carbon footprint calculation, assesses the importance of indirect non-energy in the total carbon footprint, and evaluates the calculation findings with sector-specific mitigation strategies.

The risk of resource depletion for future generations of humanity is often cited as an important issue. The choice of impact categories and characterization models for resource extraction in LCA is no more precise than other impact categories and models. This means that more discussion is needed on the use of resources. In this article, the potential depletion of Boron and Boron minerals (Colemanite, Ulexite, Tincal) are studied. These minerals have a big role for the world and for Turkey; however, this resource is limited. Using the life cycle assessment methodology, one can estimate the resource depletion through the indicator “abiotic resource depletion”. Several models can evaluate this indicator, but the most used models are ReCiPe and CML (that is the previous attempt of ReCiPe) methods. Here, we estimated the damage that is done to natural resource scarcity. The values that are calculated by these two methods were compared to identify the potential evolution of the model and to observe the gap between these two models. The ReCiPe method refers to the average amount of extra ore that is produced in the future to extract 1 kg of boron ore or boron minerals resource. On the other hand, The CML method depends on the final reserve amount in terms of depletion. The results show no depletion shortly for boron ore and boron minerals. Correlation coefficients were calculated in the ReCiPe method, and ‘high uncertainty’ was estimated since R² < 0.8. This research highlights the fact that there is the necessity to propose different impact factors for the various minerals and not only for boron (that is done today).

Although there are a lot of studies in literature related to the life cycle assessment (LCA) of mining, there are only a few studies done on the boron mining industry. This paper presents an LCA of the boron mining industry including the extraction, beneficiation, and refinement processes. The main purpose is to identify and compare the environmental impacts associated with the production of 1 ton of refined products (boric acid, borax pentahydrate, borax decahydrate, and sodium perborate) starting from an open pit mine located in Turkey. The life cycle inventory (LCI) was obtained from the data collected from the related literature sources and the company’s reports. This cradle-to-gate analysis has been carried out using the commercial software called SimaPro employing the International Reference Life Cycle Data System (ILCD) 2011 Midpoint+ Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA) method. The results showed that the environmental impact of the refinement process is critical compared to the mining and beneficiations processes. Sulphuric acid, steam, hydrogen peroxide, and sodium perborate which are used in refined boron production cause most of the impact and emission into the environment. Among the refined boron products investigated, the impact of sodium perborate is quite high.

Lead-acid batteries are commonly used as power sources for critical operations in the world. They find application in air-traffic control towers, uninterruptible power supplies (UPS), railroad crossings, military installations, hospitals, and weapons systems. Lead-acid batteries are also known as automotive batteries and industrial batteries. Lead-acid batteries consist of large amounts of lead, sulphuric acid, and plastics. The acid is tremendously irritant and a carrier for soluble information. The lead must control because of a range of adverse health effects. Thus, a collectible system that is easily accessible for waste batteries is needed. In this paper, a sustainable model is proposed for the leaching of lead-acid battery slag. The aim is to optimize the leaching of lead-acid batteries slag with natural materials. The leaching characteristic of the lead smelting slag produced using sepiolite and illite. A 2³ full factorial design model is used to investigate the combination of the effect of variable factors.

Tr en Kurşun asit akülerin büyük bir kısmı kurşun ve sülfürik asitten meydana gelir. Asit korozif olmasının yanında çözünmüş halde kurşun içerdiğinden oldukça tehlikelidir. Kurşun toksik bir metal olup çevre ve insan sağlığı açısından kontrol altında tutulması gerekir. Bu sebeple ömrünü tamamlamış aküler uygun yöntemlerle toplanmalı ve geri kazanılmalıdır. Bu çalışmada kurşun geri kazanımı sonucu oluşan cürufun tehlikelilik arz eden özelliklerinin iyileştirilmesi için doğal bir materyal olan kil kullanılmıştır. 23 faktöriyel dizayn kullanılarak kilin kurşun adsorplama yeteneği araştırılmıştır. Bu amaçla standart türü, adsorbent dozajı ve sıcaklığın etkisi incelenmiştir. Faktöriyel dizayn yönteminde iki aşamalı üç faktör standart türü olarak TS EN 12457-4 – TCLP, dozaj olarak %10 - %50 ve sıcaklık olarak 20 oC – 60 oC olarak denenmiştir. Sonuçlar istatistiksel olarak değerlendirilmiş olup standart-sıcaklık etkileşiminin en etkin parametre olduğu görülmüştür. A large part of the lead-acid battery consists of lead and sulfuric acid. Acid is corrosive and very dangerous because it contains dissolved lead. It must be kept under control in terms of environmental and human health because of lead is a toxic substance. The present study includes the safe disposal of lead-acid battery slag using clay material. The aim of this study is to investigate the adsorption of lead removal from lead acid-batteries slag on clay using 23 full factorial design. The combined effects of adsorbent amount, temperature, adsorbent type and leachate solution on the lead removal adsorption were studied. Factorial design of experiments is employed to study the effect of three factors leachant solution type (TS EN 12457-4 – TCLP), adsorbent amount (10% and 50%), temperature (20 and 60 oC), and leachate solution (TCLP DIN), at two levels low and high. The results were statistically analyzed by using the student’s t-test, analysis of variance (ANOVA) and an F-test to define important experimental factors and their levels. The results showed that the most effective parameters of the standard-temperature interaction is evaluated statistically.

Dökümhanelerden kaynaklanan ve döküm işlemi sırasında yüksek miktarlarda ortaya çıkan atıkların bertaraf edilmesi yerine çevre dostu yöntemlerle geri kazanılması ve/veya tekrar kullanılarak döküm endüstrisi veya farklı bir endüstri için katma değeri yüksek ürünlere dönüştürülmesi ve bunun sanayide uygulamaya aktarılmasının; doğal kaynaklarımızın korunması, hammadde tasarrufunun sağlanması, ekonomiye katkı sağlanması, çevrenin korunması, atık miktarının azaltılması ve gelecek için yatırım olması beklenmektedir. Bu çalışmada, Samsun İli’nde faaliyet gösteren bir dökümhane tesisinde, pik döküm işlemi sırasında açığa çıkan ve düzenli depolama yoluyla bertaraf edilen atık döküm kumunun geri kazanımına yönelik olarak, sulu çözeltilerden metilen mavisi (MM), malahit yeşili (MY) ve kristal viole (KV) gibi katyonik boyar maddelerin adsorpsiyon yoluyla giderimi üzerine yapılmıştır.

The aim of this study is to investigate the adsorption of Neutral red dye from aqueous solution on waste foundry sand with bentonite using 2³ full factorial design. The combined effect of initial dye concentration, adsorbent dosage, and contact time on the neutral red adsorption was studied. Factorial design of experiments is employed to study the effect of three factors initial dye concentration (30 and 300 mg/L), adsorbent dosage (2.5 and 20 g/L), and contact time (5 and 120 min), at two levels low and high. The results were statistically analyzed by using the student's t‐test, analysis of variance and an F‐test to define important experimental factors and their levels. A regression model that considers the significant main and interaction effects was suggested. The results showed that initial dye concentration is the most significant factor that affects the removal of neutral red. © 2013 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Environ Prog, 33: 1086–1095, 2014

In this study, chromite industry waste and red mud were used in the production of concrete. They were ground and incorporated into concrete with the levels of 5%, 10% and 15% by the weight of binder. Ten mixtures were prepared with different proportions of both the chromite industry waste and the red mud. The experimental results indicate that the mixtures that were ground with 5% chromite industry waste and 5% red mud, substituted with Portland cement gave compressive strength performance similar to that of the reference mixture. A higher percentage of the chromite industry waste and the red mud (15%) replacement yielded lower strength values. The leaching tests that were carried out confirmed that the process makes it possible to obtain materials without major risks for the environment. This study shows that using waste materials in concrete to cost‐effective help solve some of the issues with solid waste problems. © 2010 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Environ Prog, 2011

Red mud, an industrial by‐product generated during the processing of bauxite ore, was investigated as an inexpensive and effective adsorbent for the adsorption of methylene blue from aqueous solution. Chemical and heat treatments were applied to the raw red mud. The effects of contact time, adsorbent amount, pH, temperature and initial dye concentration were investigated. The adsorption isotherm and kinetics of the raw and activated red mud were studied. Freundlich, Temkin and Dubinin–Radushkevich isotherms were obtained using concentrations of methylene blue ranging from 10 to 70 mg/L. The results indicated that the Dubinin–Radushkevich model provides the best correlation of the experimental data. The adsorption rate data were analysed according to the pseudo‐first order kinetic, pseudo‐second order kinetic, intraparticle diffusion kinetic and Elovich kinetic models. The pseudo‐second order kinetic was the best fit kinetic model for the experimental data.