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Lecture Week 03

LCA

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7 views

Lecture Week 03

LCA

Uploaded by

Jamal Ud Din Qureshi
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Life Cycle

Assessment (LCA)
ES-362 EMS

Week 13
Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)

• As corporations seek to improve their environmental


performance they require new methods and tools. LCA is one
such tool that can help companies to understand the
environmental impacts associated with their products,
processes and activities.
• The goal of LCA is not to arrive at “the answer” but rather to
provide important inputs to a broader strategic planning process
Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)
• Defined in Industrial Ecology as
• The life cycle assessment is an objective process to
evaluate the environmental burdens associated with a
product, process or activity by identifying, quantifying
and assessing the impact of energy and material usage
and environmental releases and to implement
opportunities to effect environmental considerations.
Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)
The LCA-methodology is the most extensive
method for studying environmental impacts throughout a
product’s life cycle. It is now being
standardized by the International Organization of
Standardisation1. The main steps are Goal
and scope definition, Inventory analysis, Impact assessment and
Interpretation.
Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)
According to goal and scope definition the application, depth
and subject of the study, the functional unit and the system
boundaries must be defined. In line with the defined goal and
scope, interpretation is the phase of an LCA in which a
synthesis is drawn from the findings of either the inventory
analysis or the impact assessment, or both. The findings of this
interpretation may form conclusions and recommendations to
decision makers.
Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)
• Life Cycle Assessment is an environmental management tool.
The International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO)
defines LCA as
• A compilation and evaluation of the inputs, outputs and potential
environmental impacts of a product throughout its lifecycle
Full Life Cycle Assessment
(LCA)
Primary
Resources

Extraction & Reuse/


Production Use Disposal
Processing Recycle

Emissions &
Waste
EXAMPLE: LCA
Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)
• The LCA methodology is standardised by a series of ISO
standards and includes the following phases
• 1. Goal and scope definition (ISO 14041)
• 2. Inventory Analysis (ISO 14041)
• 3. Impact Assessment (ISO 14042)
• 4. Interpretation (ISO 14043)
Goal and Scope Definition
• The first phase of LCA includes definition of
• The purpose of the study and its intended use
• The system and system boundaries
• The functional unit
• Data quality, the assumptions and limitations of the study
Goal and Scope Definition
• Purpose of the LCA
• Internal
• External
Goal and Scope Definition
• System Boundaries
• Depends on scope of LCA
• Depends on type of product and suitability for full LCA
Goal and Scope Definition
• This phase also includes an assessment of the data quality and
establishing the specific data quality goals. “Goal and Scope
Definition” are constantly reviewed and refined during the
process of carrying out an LCA as additional data becomes
available.
Inventory Analysis
• The purpose of the “Inventory Analysis” is to identify and
quantify the environmental burdens in the life cycle of
the activity under study. The burdens are defined by
material and energy used in the system and emissions to
air, liquid effluents and solid wastes discharged into the
environment.
• Inventory Analysis includes the following steps
• Detailed definition of the system under study
• Data collection
• Quantification of the burdens
Inventory Analysis
• A system is defined as a collection of materially and
energetically connected operations which performs
some defined function. The system is separated from the
environment by a system boundary
Life Cycle Inventory Analysis
Inputs Materials Acquisition Outputs

Formulation, processing Principal Products


Materials and Manufacturing
Coproducts
Energy Product Distribution
Water effluents
Water Product use
Airborne emissions
Air Recycle, products,
components, materials Solid Waste

Other Environmental
Waste Management interactions
Life Cycle Inventory Analysis
• Detailed system characterisation involves its disaggregation
into a number of interlinked subsystems. Depending on the
data available, the subsystems can represent the unit
operations or a group of units.
Life Cycle Inventory Analysis

Environment

System Functional
Outputs

Inputs

Emissions/
Wastes
Subsystems
Impact Assessment
• The environmental burdens quantified in “Inventory Analysis”
are translated into the related environmental impacts. This is
carried out within the following steps
• Classification
• Characterisation
• Normalisation
• Valuation
Impact Assessment
• Classification
Involves the aggregation of environmental burdens into a
smaller number of environmental impact categories to
indicate their potential impacts on human and ecological
health and the extent of resource depletion. The
aggregation is done on the basis of the potential impacts
of the burdens so that one burden can be associated
with a number of impacts; e.g Volatile Organic
Compounds (VOC’s) contribute to both global warming
and ozone depletion.
Impact Assessment
• The impacts most commonly considered in LCA are
• Non-renewable resource depletion
• Global warming
• Ozone depletion
• Acidification
• Eutrophication
• Photochemical oxidant formation
• Human toxicity
• Aquatic toxicity
Impact Assessment
• Characterisation
• Involves the quantification of the impact of interest relative to a
reference substance. In the example we examined we look at the
Global Warming Potential of the Products life cycle relative to
CO2 emissions. Takes place using the formula

j eck,j represents the relative

E k  ec k , j B j
contribution of burden Bj to
impact Ek

j 1
Classification Factors for Selected Burdens
Impact Assessment
• Normalisation
• The impacts can be normalised with respect to the total
emissions or extractions in a certain area over a given period of
time. This can help to asses the extent to which an activity
contributes to the regional or global environmental impacts.
Should be interpreted with care due to lack of reliable data.
Impact Assessment
• Valuation
• Each impact is assigned a weight which indicates its relative
importance. As a result the environmental impacts are
aggregated into a single environmental impact function EI
Impact Assessment
• Valuation
• A number of problems at philosophical and practical level in the
realisation of this and there is no consensus on the best way to
aggregate the environmental impacts into a single EI figure.
• Some people argue that valuation should not be carried out at all
as it obscures information and that considering the impact in a
disaggregated form enhances the transparency of the decision
making based on LCA results
Interpretation
• This phase is aimed at system improvements and innovation
and it includes the following steps
• Identification of major burdens and impacts
• Identification of ‘hot spots’ in the life cycle
• Sensitivity analysis
• Evaluation of findings and recommendations
Interpretation
• Sensitivity Analysis
• Indicates the level of reliability of the LCA
• Data availability and reliability
• Uncertainties
• Data gaps
Thanks

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