Parameterised inventories for life cycle assessment

Background and Objective  

Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a highly data intensive undertaking, where collecting the life cycle inventory (LCI) data is the most labour intensive part. The aim of this paper is to show a method for representing the LCI in a simplified manner which not only allows an estimative, quantitative LCA, but also the application of advanced analysis methods to LCA.     

Life cycle assessment and life cycle costing of road infrastructure in residential neighbourhoods

Purpose

The built environment consists of a huge amount of infrastructure, such as roads and utilities. The objective of this paper is to assess the life cycle financial and environmental impact of road infrastructure in residential neighbourhoods and to analyse the relative contribution of road infrastructure in the total impact of neighbourhoods.

Methods

Various road sections are analysed based on an integrated life cycle approach, combining life cycle costing and life cycle assessment. To deal with complexity, a hierarchic assessment structure, using the principles of the “element method for cost control”, is implemented. Four neighbourhood models with diverse built densities are compared to gain insight in the relative impact of road infrastructure in neighbourhoods.

Results and discussion

The results reveal important financial and environmental impact differences between the road sections analysed. Main contributors to the life cycle financial and environmental impact are the surface layer and electrical and piped services. The contribution of road infrastructure to the total neighbourhood impact, ranging from 2 to 9 % of the total cost, is relatively limited, compared to buildings, but not negligible in low built density neighbourhoods.

Conclusions

Good spatial planning of the neighbourhood is recommended to reduce the amount of road infrastructure and the related financial and environmental impact. The priority should be to design denser neighbourhood layouts, before decreasing the financial and environmental impact of the road sections.

     

Life cycle inventories and life cycle assessment for an electricity grid network: case study of the Jamali grid,Indonesia

The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment - The electricity and heat sectors are reported to contribute approximately 40% of total CO2 emissions from the energy sector in Indonesia....     

Application of life cycle assessment in environmental labelling

The present state of worldwide discussions of how to apply LCA in environmental labelling, taking into account the current ISO 14 020 and ISO 14 024 works, is described. There is a consensus to use LCA as a tool for more scientific environmental labelling. The examples presented verify some practical possibilities to realise this approach. As a background to different stages of practical labelling, results from LCA studies are already used in the German “Blue Angel” scheme, e.g. for the definition of the scope in one product category, for the priorisation of specific life cycle phases and criteria, as a basis to establish a scoring system or to emphasise the importance of information on how to use environmentally sound products. Practical examples are presented in detail for hand-drying systems, paper products, milk packages, household equipment, televisions and detergents. Some future perspectives are mentioned. Presentation at “The Second International Conference on EcoBalance - The New Stage of LCA as a Common Language”, Nov. 18, 19 and 20, 1996 Tsukuba, Japan     

环境足迹的核算与整合框架——基于生命周期评价的视角

环境足迹及其与生命周期评价(LCA)的关系是工业生态学关注的新热点。从探讨环境足迹与LCA的关系入手,以碳足迹、水足迹、土地足迹和材料足迹为例,分别对每一项足迹指标两个版本的核算方法进行了比较。根据清单加和过程的特点,将所有足迹指标划分为基于权重因子和基于特征因子两类,总结了两者的适用性和局限性。在此基础上提出了一个环境足迹核算与整合的统一框架。该框架基于LCA视角建立,但对系统边界和清单数据的要求相对灵活,因而也适用于生命周期不甚明确的情形。研究在一定程度上揭示了足迹指标的方法学实质,同时也为环境影响综合评估提供了一条规范化的途径。     

Framework for modelling data uncertainty in life cycle inventories

Modelling data uncertainty is not common practice in life cycle inventories (LCI), although different techniques are available for estimating and expressing uncertainties, and for propagating the uncertainties to the final model results. To clarify and stimulate the use of data uncertainty assessments in common LCI practice, the SETAC working group ‘Data Availability and Quality’ presents a framework for data uncertainty assessment in LCI. Data uncertainty is divided in two categories: (1) lack of data, further specified as complete lack of data (data gaps) and a lack of representative data, and (2) data inaccuracy. Filling data gaps can be done by input-output modelling, using information for similar products or the main ingredients of a product, and applying the law of mass conservation. Lack of temporal, geographical and further technological correlation between the data used and needed may be accounted for by applying uncertainty factors to the non-representative data. Stochastic modelling, which can be performed by Monte Carlo simulation, is a promising technique to deal with data inaccuracy in LCIs.     

Integration of life cycle assessment in the environmental information system

Background, aim, and scope  As the sustainability improvement becomes an essential business task of industry, a number of companies are adopting IT-based environmental information systems (EIS). Life cycle assessment (LCA), a tool to improve environmental friendliness of a product, can also be systemized as a part of the EIS. This paper presents a case of an environmental information system which is integrated with online LCA tool to produce sets of hybrid life cycle inventory and examine its usefulness in the field application of the environmental management. Main features  Samsung SDI Ltd., the producer of display panels, has launched an EIS called Sustainability Management Initiative System (SMIS). The system comprised modules of functions such as environmental management system (EMS), green procurement (GP), customer relation (e-VOC), eco-design, and LCA. The LCA module adopted the hybrid LCA methodology in the sense that it combines process LCA for the site processes and input–output (IO) LCA for upstream processes to produce cradle-to-gate LCA results. LCA results from the module are compared with results of other LCA studies made by the application of different methodologies. The advantages and application of the LCA system are also discussed in light of the electronics industry. Results and discussion  LCA can play a vital role in sustainability management by finding environmental burden of products in their life cycle. It is especially true in the case of the electronics industry, since the electronic products have some critical public concerns in the use and end-of-life phase. SMIS shows a method for hybrid LCA through online data communication with EMS and GP module. The integration of IT-based hybrid LCA in environmental information system was set to begin in January 2006. The advantage of the comparing and regular monitoring of the LCA value is that it improves the system completeness and increases the reliability of LCA. By comparing the hybrid LCA and process LCA in the cradle-to-gate stage, the gap between both methods of the 42-in. standard definition plasma display panel (PDP) ranges from 1% (acidification impact category) to −282% (abiotic resource depletion impact category), with an average gap of 68.63%. The gaps of the impact categories of acidification (AP), eutrophication (EP), and global warming (GWP) are relatively low (less than 10%). In the result of the comparative analysis, the strength of correlation of three impact categories (AP, EP, GWP) shows that it is reliable to use the hybrid LCA when assessing the environmental impacts of the PDP module. Hybrid LCA has its own risk on data accuracy. However, the risk is affordable when it comes to the comparative LCA among different models of similar product line of a company. In the results of 2 years of monitoring of 42-in. Standard definition PDP, the hybrid LCA score has been decreased by 30%. The system also efficiently shortens man-days for LCA study per product. This fact can facilitate the eco-design of the products and can give quick response to the customer's inquiry on the product's eco-profile. Even though there is the necessity for improvement of process data currently available, the hybrid LCA provides insight into the assessments of the eco-efficiency of the manufacturing process and the environmental impacts of a product. Conclusions and recommendations  As the environmental concerns of the industries increase, the need for environmental data management also increases. LCA shall be a core part of the environmental information system by which the environmental performances of products can be controlled. Hybrid type of LCA is effective in controlling the usual eco-profile of the products in a company. For an industry, in particular electronics, which imports a broad band of raw material and parts, hybrid LCA is more practicable than the classic LCA. Continuous efforts are needed to align input data and keep conformity, which reduces data uncertainty of the system.     

A proposal to measure absolute environmental sustainability in life cycle assessment

Environmental monitoring indicates that progress towards the goal of environmental sustainability in many cases is slow, non-existing or negative. Indicators that use environmental carrying capacity references to evaluate whether anthropogenic systems are, or will potentially be, environmentally sustainable are therefore increasingly important. Such absolute indicators exist, but suffer from shortcomings such as incomplete coverage of environmental issues, varying data quality and varying or insufficient spatial resolution. The purpose of this article is to demonstrate that life cycle assessment (LCA) can potentially reduce or eliminate these shortcomings.We developed a generic mathematical framework for the use of carrying capacity as environmental sustainability reference in spatially resolved life cycle impact assessment models and applied this framework to the LCA impact category terrestrial acidification. In this application carrying capacity was expressed as acid deposition (eq. mol H⁺ ha⁻¹ year⁻¹) and derived from two complementary pH related thresholds. A geochemical steady-state model was used to calculate a carrying capacity corresponding to these thresholds for 99,515 spatial units worldwide. Carrying capacities were coupled with deposition factors from a global deposition model to calculate characterisation factors (CF), which expresses space integrated occupation of carrying capacity (ha year) per kg emission. Principles for calculating the entitlement to carrying capacity of anthropogenic systems were then outlined, and the logic of considering a studied system environmentally sustainable if its indicator score (carrying capacity occupation) does not exceed its carrying capacity entitlement was demonstrated. The developed CFs and entitlement calculation principles were applied to a case study evaluating emission scenarios for personal residential electricity consumption supplied by production from 45 US coal fired electricity plant.Median values of derived CFs are 0.16–0.19 ha year kg⁻¹ for common acidifying compounds. CFs are generally highest in Northern Europe, Canada and Alaska due to the low carrying capacity of soils in these regions. Differences in indicator scores of the case study emission scenarios are to a larger extent driven by variations in pollution intensities of electricity plants than by spatial variations in CFs. None of the 45 emission scenarios could be considered environmentally sustainable when using the relative contribution to GDP or the grandfathering (proportionality to past emissions) valuation principles to calculating carrying capacity entitlements. It is argued that CFs containing carrying capacity references are complementary to existing CFs in supporting decisions aimed at simultaneously reducing environmental impacts efficiently and maintaining or achieving environmental sustainability.We have demonstrated that LCA indicators can be modified from being relative to being absolute indicators of environmental sustainability. Further research should focus on quantifying uncertainties related to choices in indicator design and on reducing uncertainties effectively.     

Selection of industry specific burdens for life cycle inventories

This paper focuses on two principal areas of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)-specific burdens in the electronics industry and burden selection criteria. The current list of environmental burdens generally used in the inventory phase of LCA does not cover many potential burdens and may bias the impact assessment stage. Most of the burdens used to date have been selected arbitrarily on data availability. This is a potential weakness in LCA methodology and new selection criteria are suggested for use in determining industry selective burdens to improve the accuracy and value of LCA’s.     

A review of environmental life cycle assessment studies examining cheese production

Purpose

Cheese is one of the world’s most widely consumed dairy products and its popularity is ever growing. However, as concerns for the environmental impact of industries increase, products like cheese, which have a significant environmental impact, may lose their popularity. A commonly used technique to assess the environmental impact of a product is life cycle assessment (LCA). In this paper, a state-of-the-art review of LCA studies on the environmental impact of cheese production is presented.

Methods

Sixteen LCA studies, which explored the impact from the production of a variety of cheese types (fresh, mature and semi-hard) were examined and discussed. The four stages of the LCA were examined and the range of results of selected environmental impact categories (global warming potential, acidification potential and eutrophication potential) were detailed and discussed.

Results and discussion

For each of these environmental impact categories, raw milk production was consistently found to be the most significant contributor to the total impact, which was followed by processing. It was found that allocation between cheese and its by-products was crucial in determining the impact of cheese production and standardisation or guidelines may be needed. Very little information relating to wastewater treatment system and processes were reported and this leads to inaccurate environmental impact modelling relating to these aspects of the manufacture of cheese. Very few studies included the design of packaging in terms of reducing food waste, which may significantly contribute to the overall environmental impact.

Conclusions

As raw milk production was found to have the greatest contribution to environmental impact, mitigation strategies at farm-level, particularly in relation to enteric fermentation and manure management, need to be implemented. Additionally, based on the literature, there is a suggestion that fresh cheese has less of an environmental impact than semi-hard cheeses, particularly when examining direct energy consumption. However, there needs to be more case studies investigated to justify this statement.

     

The environmental impact of activities after life: life cycle assessment of funerals

Purpose

Although the funeral market is propagating new ‘green’ alternatives and exploring innovative techniques like resomation, very little is known about the environmental impact of funerals. This research aimed to develop a benchmark of funerals, by quantifying the environmental impacts of the most common funeral techniques, i.e. burial and cremation, by identifying where the main impacts originate from and by comparing these impacts to impacts of other activities during a person’s life.

Methods

The environmental impacts of funerals were analysed by means of a life cycle assessment (LCA), based on Dutch company information, literature and expert judgements. The results were analysed per impact category but also on an aggregated level by means of shadow prices. Two sensitivity analyses were performed: one examined the high impact of cotton in funeral coffins; the other checked the results by means of another weighting method.

Results and discussion

The results showed no significant difference between the two funeral techniques in five impact categories. Burial has the lowest impact in more than half of the categories, but its impact is many times higher in the two most differing categories than for cremation. The total shadow price of burial is about 30 % higher than the shadow price of cremation, but the main cause for this difference is a highly debated category, namely land use. If the results would be considered without the shadow prices of land impact categories, burial would score 25 % lower than cremation. These results are representing average practise and may deviate on certain aspects for other countries, but as a starting point for further studies, this benchmark is well applicable.

Conclusions and recommendations

This study delivered an environmental benchmark of funerals and insights in the impacts of the individual processes, which can be used in further assessment of ’green’ funeral options. The benchmark results show that the environmental impact of funerals is largely determined by secondary processes and that the total impact can be quite small in comparison to other human activities. Besides these environmental insights, it is important to take into account social, cultural, climatic, local, economical and ethical arguments before changing policies or giving recommendations.

     

Integrating life cycle costs and environmental impacts of composite rail car-bodies for a Korean train

Background, aim, and scope  A coupled Life Cycle Costing and life cycle assessment has been performed for car-bodies of the Korean Tilting Train eXpress (TTX) project using European and Korean databases, with the objective of assessing environmental and cost performance to aid materials and process selection. More specifically, the potential of polymer composite car-body structures for the Korean Tilting Train eXpress (TTX) has been investigated. Materials and methods  This assessment includes the cost of both carriage manufacturing and use phases, coupled with the life cycle environmental impacts of all stages from raw material production, through carriage manufacture and use, to end-of-life scenarios. Metallic carriages were compared with two composite options: hybrid steel-composite and full-composite carriages. The total planned production for this regional Korean train was 440 cars, with an annual production volume of 80 cars. Results and discussion  The coupled analyses were used to generate plots of cost versus energy consumption and environmental impacts. The results show that the raw material and manufacturing phase costs are approximately half of the total life cycle costs, whilst their environmental impact is relatively insignificant (3–8%). The use phase of the car-body has the largest environmental impact for all scenarios, with near negligible contributions from the other phases. Since steel rail carriages weigh more (27–51%), the use phase cost is correspondingly higher, resulting in both the greatest environmental impact and the highest life cycle cost. Compared to the steel scenario, the hybrid composite variant has a lower life cycle cost (16%) and a lower environmental impact (26%). Though the full composite rail carriage may have the highest manufacturing cost, it results in the lowest total life cycle costs and lowest environmental impacts. Conclusions and recommendations  This coupled cost and life cycle assessment showed that the full composite variant was the optimum solution. This case study showed that coupling of technical cost models with life cycle assessment offers an efficient route to accurately evaluate economic and environmental performance in a consistent way.     

Combining ecosystem indicators and life cycle assessment for environmental assessment of demersal trawling in Tunisia

The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment - The present study assesses environmental performance of seafood production by demersal trawling in Tunisia (Gulf of Gabes) in order to analyze...     

A model for streamlining and automating path exchange hybrid life cycle assessment

The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment - Life cycle assessment (LCA) is inherently complex and time consuming. The compilation of life cycle inventories (LCI) using a traditional...     

Assessing potential desertification environmental impact in life cycle assessment

Background, aim and scope  

Life cycle assessment (LCA) enables the objective assessment of global environmental burdens associated with the life cycle of a product or a production system. One of the main weaknesses of LCA is that, as yet, there is no scientific agreement on the assessment methods for land-use related impacts, which results in either the exclusion or the lack of assessment of local environmental impacts related to land use. The inclusion of the desertification impact in LCA studies of any human activity can be important in high-desertification risk regions.     

Development of life cycle inventories for electricity grid mixes in Japan

Since most industrial processes consume electricity, it is quite important to develop reliable inventory data for electricity. There is, however, a problem that only a few figures concerning emissions related to electricity have been reported. In this work, process models of power plants were developed for the Japanese situation which simulate the mass flows and estimate the missing figures of emissions dependent on technical parameters of the plants and fuels. In Japan, electricity is supplied to the various regions by 10 electric companies. Therefore, life cycle inventories for the electricity grid mixes of the 10 electric companies in 1997 were developed. The functional unit is 1 kWh of electricity distributed to electricity users in each region. The emission of CO₂, SO₂, NO_k, CH₄, CO, non-methane volatile organic compound (NMVOC), dust (all particulates) and heavy metals (Ni, V, As, Cd, Cr, Hg, Pb, Zn) from power stations as well as those from fuel production and transport were investigated. Other pollutants into air, emissions to water, solid wastes, radiation and radioactive emissions from atomic power stations were not included due to a limitation of the available data. Direct CO₂ emissions related to 1 kWh of electricity distributed by companies ranged from 0.21 to 1.0 kg/kWh (average value: 0.38 kg/kWh). Direct emissions of SO₂ and NO_x from power stations related to 1 kWh of electricity are 2.5* 10^-4 and 2.2* 10^-4 kg/kWh on the average, respectively. SO₂ emissions calculated in this work were somehow large compared with those reported by electric companies. Detailed information concerning total sulfur content in oil consumed in each oil-fired power station are required for an exact calculation of SO₂ emissions from oil-fired power stations. In addition, the ratio of sulfur that goes into slag in combustion must be investigated further. The average amounts of CO, CH₄, NMVOC and dust emissions were 5.0*10^-5, 8.2*10^-6, 1.8*10^-5 and 6.8 * 10^-6 kg/kWh, respectively. Heavy metal emissions from power stations were on the order of 10^-9 to 10^-8 kg/kWh. Detailed information concerning heavy metal content in oil and coals consumed in fossil fuel power stations are further required for an improved assessment of heavy metal emissions. Contribution of fuel production and transport to total CO₂ emission was relatively small. On the other hand, contributions of fuel production and transport to total SO₂ and NO_x emissions were relatively large. In the case of CO, NMVOC and dust, emissions in fuel production and transport were predominant to total emissions. Heavy metal emissions into air during production and transport of fuels were on the order of 10/^-8 to 10^-9 kg/kWh.     

A life cycle assessment of the environmental impacts of a beef system in the USA

The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment - The need to assess the sustainability attributes of the United States beef industry is underscored by its importance to food security locally...