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1.
Laurence Toffoletto Cécile Bulle Julie Godin Catherine Reid Louise Deschênes 《The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment》2007,12(2):93-102
Goal, Scope and Background Canadian LCA practitioners currently use European or American methodologies when conducting comprehensive impact assessments,
despite the fact that these methods may not be appropriate for Canadian conditions. Due to the lack of suitable models that
are currently available, work has been undertaken to develop an LCIA method by adapting existing LCIA models to the Canadian
context. This new method allows the characterization of 10 impact categories.
Methods This project is strongly based on preliminary outcomes from SETAC recommendations for the best available practices in LCIA.
Models from 3 recent LCIA site-dependent methods, EDIP2003, IMPACT2002+ and TRACI, were used in this midpoint Canadian-specific
method. Characterization models were chosen based on their level of comprehensiveness, scientific sophistication and the possibility
of integrating site-specific values in the models.
Results and Discussion All regional and local impact categories in the method are site-differentiated. For aquatic eutrophication, (eco)toxicity
and land-use impact categories, regionally-differentiated models taking into account fate and effect were already available:
the parameters of these models were modified for the Canadian context. For acidification, aquatic and terrestrial eutrophication,
existing models were spatially differentiated for fate: regionalization of the effect factor was also included, based on the
level of sensitivity of each ecozone assessed with vulnerability factors. The default spatial resolution selected for this
method was Canadian ecozones, which define spaces in an ecologically meaningful way where organisms and their physical environment
evolve as a system. For each ecozone, 2334 site-dependent characterization factors have been calculated.
Conclusion This LCIA methodology proposes an attractive and useful set of site-dependent characterization factors for the 15 Canadian
terrestrial ecozones.
Recommendation and Outlook Efforts are being carried out to extend the specificity of some factors used in eutrophication modelization. Finally, the
transparency of the methodology will allow to re-calculate site-dependent characterization factors for different regions and
for additional substances. 相似文献
2.
Background, aim, and scope Traditional life cycle impact assessment methodologies have used aggregated characterization factors, neglecting spatial and
temporal variations in regional impacts like photochemical oxidant formation. This increases the uncertainty of the LCA results
and diminishes the ease of decision-making. This study compares four common impact assessment methods, CML2001, Eco-indicator
99, TRACI, and EDIP2003, on their underlying models, spatial and temporal resolution, and the level at which photochemical
oxidant impacts are calculated. A new characterization model is proposed that incorporates spatial and temporal differentiation.
Materials and methods A photochemical air quality modeling system (CAMx-MM5-SMOKE) is used to simulate the process of formation, transformation,
transport, and removal of photochemical pollutants. Monthly characterization factors for individual US states are calculated
at three levels along the cause–effect chain, namely, fate level, human and ecosystem exposure level, and human effect level.
Results and discussion The results indicate that a spatial variability of one order of magnitude and a temporal variability of two orders of magnitude
exist in both the fate level and human exposure and effect level characterization factors for NOx. The summer time characterization factors for NOx are higher than the winter time factors. However, for anthropogenic VOC, the summer time factors are lower than the winter
time in almost half of the states. This is due to the higher emission rates of biogenic VOCs in the summer. The ecosystem
exposure factors for NOx and VOC do not follow a regular pattern and show a spatial variation of about three orders of magnitude. They do not show
strong correlation with the human exposure factors. Sensitivity analysis has shown that the effect of meteorology and emission
inputs is limited to a factor of three, which is several times smaller than the variation seen in the factors.
Conclusions Uncertainties are introduced in the characterization of photochemical precursors due to a failure to consider the spatial
and temporal variations. Seasonal variations in photochemical activity influence the characterization factors more than the
location of emissions. The human and ecosystem exposures occur through different mechanisms, and impacts calculated at the
fate level based only on ozone concentration are not a good indicator for ecosystem impacts.
Recommendations and perspectives Spatial and temporal differentiation account for fate and transport of the pollutant, and the exposure of and effect on the
sensitive human population or ecosystem. Adequate resolution for seasonal and regional processes, like photochemical oxidant
formation, is important to reduce the uncertainty in impact assessment and improve decision-making power. An emphasis on incorporating
some form of spatial and temporal information within standard LCI databases and using adequately resolved characterization
factors will greatly increase the fidelity of a standard LCA.
Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. 相似文献
3.
《Journal of Industrial Ecology》2002,6(3-4):79-101
The tool for the reduction and assessment of chemical and other environmental impacts (TRACI) is a set of life-cycle impact assessment (LCIA) characterization methods that has been developed by a series of U.S. Environmental Protection Agency research projects. TRACI facilitates the characterization of stressors that may have potential effects, including ozone depletion, global warming, acidification, eutrophication, tropospheric ozone (smog) formation, eco-toxicity, human particulate effects, human carcinogenic effects, human non-carcinogenic effects, fossil fuel depletion, and land-use effects. This article describes the methodologies developed to address acidification, eutrophication, and smog. Each of these methods offers the ability to take account of differences in expected strength of impact as a function of pollution release location within North America. Specifically, the methods employ regionalized fate and transport modeling. The resulting factors differ regionally by up to more than an order of magnitude. 相似文献
4.
Pierre-Olivier Roy Louise Deschênes Manuele Margni 《The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment》2014,19(4):882-890
Purpose
Characterization factors (CFs) quantifying the potential impact of acidifying emissions on inland aquatic environments in life cycle assessment are typically available on a generic level. The lack of spatial differentiation may weaken the relevance of generic CFs since it was shown that regional impact categories such as aquatic acidification were influenced by the surroundings of the emission location. This paper presents a novel approach for the development of spatially differentiated CFs at a global scale for the aquatic acidification impact category.Methods
CFs were defined as the change in relative decrease of lake fish species richness due to a change in acidifying chemicals emissions. The characterization model includes the modelling steps linking emission to atmospheric acid deposition (atmospheric fate factor) change, which lead to lake H+ concentration (receiving environment fate factor) change and a decrease in relative fish species richness (effect factor). We also evaluated the significance of each factor (i.e. atmospheric fate, receiving environment fate and effects) to the overall CFs spatial variability and parameter uncertainty.Results and discussion
The highest CFs were found for emissions occurring in Canada, Scandinavia and the northern central Asia because of the extensive lake areas in these regions (lake areas being one of the parameters of the CFs; the bigger the lake areas, the higher the CFs). The CFs’ spatial variability ranged over 5, 6 and 8 orders of magnitude for NOx, SO2 and NH3 emissions, respectively. We found that the aquatic receiving environment fate factor is the dominant contributor to the overall spatial variability of the CFs, while the effect factors contributed to 98 % of the total parameter uncertainty.Conclusions
The resulting characterization model and factors enable a consistent evaluation of spatially explicit acidifying emissions impacts at the global scale. 相似文献5.
Kamalaporn Phumpradab Shabbir H. Gheewala Masayuki Sagisaka 《The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment》2009,14(4):354-363
Background, aim, and scope The main primary energy for electricity in Thailand is natural gas, accounting for 73% of the grid mix. Electricity generation
from natural gas combustion is associated with substantial air emissions. The two technologies currently used in Thailand,
thermal and combined cycle power plant, have been evaluated for the potential environmental impacts in a “cradle-to-grid”
study according to the life cycle assessment (LCA) method. This study evaluates the environmental impacts of each process
of the natural gas power production over the entire life cycle and compares two different power plant technologies currently
used in Thailand, namely, combined cycle and thermal.
Materials and methods LCA is used as a tool for the assessment of resource consumption and associated impacts generated from utilization of natural
gas in power production. The details follow the methodology outlined in ISO 14040. The scope of this research includes natural
gas extraction, natural gas separation, natural gas transmission, and natural gas power production. Most of the inventory
data have been collected from Thailand, except for the upstream of fuel oil and fuel transmission, which have been computed
from Greenhouse gases, Regulated Emissions, and Energy use in Transportation version 1.7 and Global Emission Model for Integrated
Systems version 4.3. The impact categories considered are global warming, acidification, photochemical ozone formation, and
nutrient enrichment potential (NEP).
Results The comparison reveals that the combined cycle power plant, which has a higher efficiency, performs better than the thermal
power plant for global warming potential (GWP), acidification potential (ACP), and photochemical ozone formation potential
(POCP), but not for NEP where the thermal power plant is preferable.
Discussion For the thermal power plant, the most significant environmental impacts are from power production followed by upstream of
fuel oil, natural gas extraction, separation, and transportation. For the combined cycle power plant, the most significant
environmental impacts are from power production followed by natural gas extraction, separation, and transportation. The significant
difference between the two types of power production is mainly from the combustion process and feedstock in power plant.
Conclusions The thermal power plant uses a mix of natural gas (56% by energy content) and fuel oil (44% by energy content); whereas, the
combined cycle power plant operates primarily on natural gas. The largest contribution to GWP, ACP, and NEP is from power
production for both thermal as well as combined cycle power plants. The POCP for the thermal power plant is also from power
production; whereas, for combined cycle power plant, it is mainly from transmission of natural gas.
Recommendations and perspectives In this research, we have examined the environmental impact of electricity generation technology between thermal and combined
cycle natural gas power plants. This is the overview of the whole life cycle of natural gas power plant, which will help in
decision making. The results of this study will be useful for future power plants as natural gas is the major feedstock being
promoted in Thailand for power production. Also, these results will be used in further research for comparison with other
feedstocks and power production technologies. 相似文献
6.
José Potting Wolfgang Schöpp Kornelis Blok Michael Hauschild 《Journal of Industrial Ecology》1998,2(2):63-87
The lack of spatial differentiation in current life-cycle impact assessment (LCIA) affects the relevance of the assessed impact. This article first describes a framework for constructing factors relating the region of emission to the acidifying impact on its deposition areas. Next, these factors are established for 44 European regions with the help of the RAINS model, an integrated assessment model that combines information on regional emission levels with information on long-range atmospheric transport to estimate patterns of deposition and concentration for comparison with critical loads and thresholds for acidification, eutrophication via air; and tropospheric ozone formation. The application of the acidification factors in LCIA is very straightforward. The only additional data required, the geographical site of the emission, is generally provided by current life-cycle inventory analysis. The acidification factors add resolving power of a factor of 1,000 difference between the highest and lowest ratings, while the combined uncertainties in the RAINS model are canceled out to a large extent in the acidification factors as a result of the large number of ecosystems they cover The framework presented is also suitable for establishing similar factors for eutrophication and tropospheric ozone formation for regions outside Europe as well. 相似文献
7.
Jane C. Bare Patrick Hofstetter David W. Pennington Helias A. Udo de Haes 《The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment》2000,5(6):319-326
On May 25–26, 2000 in Brighton (England), the third in a series of international workshops was held under the umbrella of
UNEP addressing issues in Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA). The workshop provided a forum for experts to discuss midpoint
vs. endpoint modeling. Midpoints are considered to be links in the cause-effect chain (environmental mechanism) of an impact
category, prior to the endpoints, at which characterization factors or indicators can be derived to reflect the relative importance
of emissions or extractions. Common examples of midpoint characterization factors include ozone depletion potentials, global
warming potentials, and photochemical ozone (smog) creation potentials. Recently, however, some methodologies have adopted
characterization factors at an endpoint level in the cause-effect chain for all categories of impact (e.g., human health impacts
in terms of disability adjusted life years for carcinogenicity, climate change, ozone depletion, photochemical ozone creation;
or impacts in terms of changes in biodiversity, etc.). The topics addressed at this workshop included the implications of
midpoint versus endpoint indicators with respect to uncertainty (parameter, model and scenario), transparency and the ability
to subsequently resolve trade-offs across impact categories using weighting techniques. The workshop closed with a consensus
that both midpoint and endpoint methodologies provide useful information to the decision maker, prompting the call for tools
that include both in a consistent framework. 相似文献
8.
Goal, Scope, and Background The main goal of the study is a comprehensive life cycle assessment of kerosene produced in a refinery located in Thessaloniki
(Greece) and used in a commercial jet aircraft.
Methods The Eco-Indicator 95 weighting method is used for the purpose of this study. The Eco-Indicator is a method of aggregation
(or, as described in ISO draft 14042, 'weighting through categories') that leads to a single score. In the Eco-indicator method,
the weighing factor (We) applied to an environmental impact index (greenhouse effect, ozone depletion, etc.) stems from the
'main' damage caused by this environmental impact.
Results and Discussion The dominant source of greenhouse gas emissions is from kerosene combustion in aircraft turbines during air transportation,
which contributes 99.5% of the total CO2 emissions. The extraction and refinery process of crude oil contribute by around
0.22% to the GWP. This is a logical outcome considering that these processes are very energy intensive. Transportation of
crude oil and kerosene have little or no contribution to this impact category. The main source of CFC-11 equivalent emissions
is refining of crude oil. These emissions derive from emissions that result from electricity production that is used during
the operation of the refinery. NOx emissions contribute the most to the acidification followed by SO2 emissions. The main
source is the use process in a commercial jet aircraft, which contributes approximately 96.04% to the total equivalent emissions.
The refinery process of crude oil contributes by 2.11% mainly by producing SO2 emissions. This is due to the relative high
content of sulphur in the input flows of these processes (crude oil) that results to the production of large amount of SO2.
Transportation of crude oil by sea (0.76%) produces large amount of SO2 and NOx due to combustion of low quality liquid fuels
(heavy fuel oil). High air emissions of NOx during kerosene combustion result in the high contribution of this subsystem to
the eutrophication effect. Also, water emissions with high nitrous content during the refining and extraction of crude oil
process have a big impact to the water eutrophication impact category.
Conclusion The major environmental impact from the life cycle of kerosene is the acidification effect, followed by the greenhouse effect.
The summer smog and eutrophication effect have much less severe effect. The main contributor is the combustion of kerosene
to a commercial jet aircraft. Excluding the use phase, the refining process appears to be the most polluting process during
kerosene's life cycle. This is due to the fact that the refining process is a very complicated energy intensive process that
produces large amounts and variety of pollutant substances. Extraction and transportation of crude oil and kerosene equally
contribute to the environmental impacts of the kerosene cycle, but at much lower level than the refining process.
Recommendation and Perspective The study indicates a need for a more detailed analysis of the refining process which has a very high contribution to the
total equivalent emissions of the acidification effect and to the total impact score of the system (excluding the combustion
of kerosene). This is due to the relative high content of sulphur in the input flows of these processes (crude oil) that results
to the production of large amount of SO2. 相似文献
9.
The environmental impact assessment existing in the Russian Federation at the present moment cannot provide potential scenarios
of consequences for the environment from examined processes, since its goal is to calculate the money equivalent of emissions
to the environment. Also, it cannot help the environmental specialist to choose the most environmentally sustainable scenario
or process, proceeding from the whole life cycle of the object, because it is usually performed only for the use phase of
an object.
This study also aims to show possibilities for applying LCA methodology, as accepted in the ISO standards series 14040, and
as applied to Russian conditions. The main purpose was to investigate a possibility of using the existing environmental impact
assessment as the inventory stage in the LCA. As the minor goal, normalisation and weighting factor data for the Russian Federation
were calculated on the basis of energy consumption extrapolation.
In this paper, the environmental impacts are associated with a sewage wastewater facility. The inventory analysis is performed
with data obtained from the MosvodokanalNIIproject (Moscow Research Institute for sewage wastewater treatment facilities)
and supplemented with the SimaPro 5.0 database (the Netherlands). The environmental impact categories included and discussed
in this study are eutrophication, global warming, landfill, acidification, ozone layer depletion and photochemical ozone creation.
This study was performed for several design alternatives or scenarios of the wastewater facility. According to the LCA performed
in this study, the most environmentally sustainable scenario is that which has the most effective and complicated treatment
of sewage water and sludge. 相似文献
10.
Background Acidification is one of the important impact categories for life cycle impact assessment. Although its characterization has
progressed during this decade through the employment of midpoint approaches, only limited studies of endpoint approaches have
been performed. Objective. This study aimed at developing damage function of acidification for terrestrial ecosystems in Japan.
Damage function expresses a quantitative relationship between the inventory and endpoint damage.
Methods The geographical boundary was limited in Japan both for emission and impact. In this study, sulfur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen monoxide (NO), nitrogen dioxide (NO2) (NO and NO2 collectively mean NOx), hydrogen chloride (HC1), and ammonia (NH3) were considered as major causative substances of acidification. Net primary production (NPP) of existing vegetation was
adopted as an impact indicator of terrestrial ecosystems. The aluminum toxicity was adopted as the major factor of effect
on terrestrial ecosystems due to acidification. The leachate concentration of monomeric inorganic aluminum ions was selected
to express the plant toxicity of aluminum.
Results and Discussion The results of damage function gave utilizable factors both for a midpoint approach and an endpoint approach; Atmospheric
Deposition Factor (ADF) and Damage Factor (DF) applicable to the former and the latter, respectively. The ADF indicates an
increase of H+ deposition per unit area to an additional emission of causative sustance. The additional emission corresponds to some alternatives
in industry, not the baseline emission. The DF indicates the total NPP damage in all of Japan due to the additional emission
of causative substances. The derived NPP damage is on the order of one millionth of the NPP itself. HC1 and NH3 showed larger
ADFs and DFs than that of SO2 and NOx. The reason was ascribed to the relatively large source-receptor relationships (SRR) of HC1 and NH3. However, since the method applied to determine the SRR of HC1 and NH3 has larger uncertainties than that of SO2 and NOx, attention is needed to handle the difference.
Conclusion The damage function easily defines the concrete NPP damage due to an additional emission. The impact indica tor, NPP, also
has an advantage in its mass unit that is directly summable through the entire impact categories. Expansion of endpoints,
such as in aquatic ecosystems, material degradation, human health, and biodiversity aspects of terrestrial ecosystems, is
an important subject for future work. Further, uncertain analyses for major parameters will provide helpful information on
the reliability of damage function. 相似文献
11.
Environmental performance assessment of hardboard manufacture 总被引:1,自引:0,他引:1
Sara González-García Gumersindo Feijoo Petri Widsten Andreas Kandelbauer Edith Zikulnig-Rusch Ma Teresa Moreira 《The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment》2009,14(5):456-466
Background, aim and scope The forest-based and related industries comprise one of the most important industry sectors in the European Union, representing
some 10% of the EU's manufacturing industries. Their activities are based on renewable raw material resources and efficient
recycling. The forest-based industries can be broken down into the following sectors: forestry, woodworking, pulp and paper
manufacturing, paper and board converting and printing and furniture. The woodworking sector includes many sub-sectors; one
of the most important is that of wood panels accounting for 9% of total industry production. Wood panels are used as intermediate
products in a wide variety of applications in the furniture and building industries. There are different kinds of panels:
particleboard, fibreboard, veneer, plywood and blockboard. The main goal of this study was to assess the environmental impacts
during the life cycle of wet-process fibreboard (hardboard) manufacturing to identify the processes with the largest environmental
impacts.
Methods The study covers the life cycle of hardboard production from a cradle-to-gate perspective. A hardboard plant was analysed
in detail, dividing the process chain into three subsystems: wood preparation, board forming and board finishing. Ancillary
activities such as chemicals, wood chips, thermal energy and electricity production and transport were included within the
system boundaries. Inventory data came from interviews and surveys (on-site measurements). When necessary, the data were complemented
with bibliographic resources. The life cycle assessment procedure followed the ISO14040 series. The life cycle inventory (LCI)
and impact assessment database for this study were constructed using SimaPro Version 7.0 software.
Results Abiotic depletion (AD), global warming (GW), ozone layer depletion (OLD), human toxicity (HT), ecotoxicity, photochemical
oxidant formation (PO), acidification (AC) and eutrophication (EP) were the impact categories analysed in this study. The
wood preparation subsystem contributed more than 50% to all impact categories, followed by board forming and board finishing,
which is mainly due to chemicals consumption in the wood preparation subsystem. In addition, thermal energy requirements (for
all subsystems) were fulfilled by on-site wood waste burning and, accordingly, biomass energy converters were considered.
Several processes were identified as hot spots in this study: phenol-formaldehyde resin production (with large contribution
to HT, fresh water aquatic ecotoxicity and PO), electricity production (main contributor to marine aquatic ecotoxicity), wood
chips production (AD and OLD) and finally, biomass burning for heat production (identified as the largest contributor to AC
and EP due to NO
X
emissions). In addition, uncontrolled formaldehyde emissions from manufacturing processes at the plant such as fibre drying
should be controlled due to relevant contributions to terrestrial ecotoxicity and PO. A sensitivity analysis of electricity
profile generation (strong geographic dependence) was carried out and several European profiles were analysed.
Discussion Novel binding agents for the wood panel industry as a substitute for the currently used formaldehyde-based binders have been
extensively investigated. Reductions of toxic emissions during drying, mat forming and binder production are desirable. The
improved method would considerably reduce the contributions to all impact categories.
Conclusions The results obtained in this work allow forecasting the importance of the wood preparation subsystem for the environmental
burdens associated with hardboard manufacture. Special attention was paid to the inventory analysis stage for each subsystem.
It is possible to improve the environmental performance of the hardboard manufacturing process if some alternatives are implemented
regarding the use of chemicals, electricity profile and emission sources in the production processes located inside the plant.
Recommendations and perspectives This study provides useful information for forest-based industries related to panel manufacture with the aim of increasing
their sustainability. Our research continues to assess the use phase and final disposal of panels to complete the life cycle
assessment. Future work will focus on analysing the environmental aspects associated with plywood, another type of commonly
used wood panel. 相似文献
12.
13.
Alejandro Gallego Luis Rodríguez Almudena Hospido María Teresa Moreira Gumersindo Feijoo 《The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment》2010,15(1):32-43
Background, aim, and scope
Life cycle assessment (LCA) has traditionally been considered a site-independent tool, but nowadays, there is a trend towards making LCA more site-dependent. Site-dependent characterization factors have been calculated for regional impact categories such as acidification, terrestrial and aquatic eutrophication, and smog. Specifically, for aquatic eutrophication, characterization factors have been proposed for large geographical areas (mainly European and North American countries). Those factors are not detailed enough for countries which present large geographical, climatic, and economical variability such as Spain. Therefore, this work aims to calculate the characterization factors and the normalization reference for aquatic eutrophication at a regional level, using Galicia (NW Spain), a region with increasing problems of eutrophication, as a case study. Finally, the comparison of the factors obtained here with literature values will be used to analyze the influence of spatial differentiation with increasing coverage of the causality chain. 相似文献14.
Erasmo Cadena Joan Colón Adriana Artola Antoni Sánchez Xavier Font 《The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment》2009,14(5):401-410
Background, aim, and scope Composting is a viable technology to treat the organic fraction of municipal solid waste (OFMSW) because it stabilizes biodegradable
organic matter and contributes to reduce the quantity of municipal solid waste to be incinerated or land-filled. However,
the composting process generates environmental impacts such as atmospheric emissions and resources consumption that should
be studied. This work presents the inventory data and the study of the environmental impact of two real composting plants
using different technologies, tunnels (CT) and confined windrows (CCW).
Materials and methods Inventory data of the two composting facilities studied were obtained from field measurements and from plant managers. Next,
life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology was used to calculate the environmental impacts. Composting facilities were located
in Catalonia (Spain) and were evaluated during 2007. Both studied plants treat source separated organic fraction of municipal
solid waste. In both installations the analysis includes environmental impact from fuel, water, and electricity consumption
and the main gaseous emissions from the composting process itself (ammonia and volatile organic compounds).
Results and discussion Inventory analysis permitted the calculation of different ratios corresponding to resources consumption or plant performance
and process yield with respect to 1 t of OFMSW. Among them, it can be highlighted that in both studied plants total energy
consumption necessary to treat the OFMSW and transform it into compost was between 130 and 160 kWh/t OFMSW. Environmental
impact was evaluated in terms of global warming potential (around 60 kg CO2/t OFMSW for both plants), acidification potential (7.13 and 3.69 kg SO2 eq/t OFMSW for CT and CCW plant respectively), photochemical oxidation potential (0.1 and 3.11 kg C2H4 eq/t OFMSW for CT and CCW plant, respectively), eutrophication (1.51 and 0.77 kg /t OFMSW for CT and CCW plant, respectively), human toxicity (around 15 kg 1,4-DB eq/t OFMSW for both plants) and ozone layer
depletion (1.66 × 10−5 and 2.77 × 10−5 kg CFC−11 eq/t OFMSW for CT and CCW plant, respectively).
Conclusions This work reflects that the life cycle perspective is a useful tool to analyze a composting process since it permits the comparison
among different technologies. According to our results total energy consumption required for composting OFMSW is dependent
on the technology used (ranging from 130 to 160 kWh/t OFMSW) as water consumption is (from 0.02 to 0.33 m3 of water/t OFMSW). Gaseous emissions from the composting process represent the main contribution to eutrophication, acidification
and photochemical oxidation potentials, while those contributions related to energy consumption are the principal responsible
for global warming.
Recommendations and perspectives This work provides the evaluation of environmental impacts of two composting technologies that can be useful for its application
to composting plants with similar characteristics. In addition, this study can also be part of future works to compare composting
with other OFMSW treatments from a LCA perspective. Likewise, the results can be used for the elaboration of a greenhouse
gasses emissions inventory in Catalonia and Spain. 相似文献
15.
An M. De Schryver Rosalie van Zelm Sebastien Humbert Stephan Pfister Thomas E. McKone Mark A. J. Huijbregts 《Journal of Industrial Ecology》2011,15(5):796-815
This article investigates how value choices in life cycle impact assessment can influence characterization factors (CFs) for human health (expressed as disability‐adjusted life years [DALYs]). The Cultural Theory is used to define sets of value choices in the calculation of CFs, reflecting the individualist, hierarchist, and egalitarian perspectives. CFs were calculated for interventions related to the following impact categories: water scarcity, tropospheric ozone formation, particulate matter formation, human toxicity, ionizing radiation, stratospheric ozone depletion, and climate change. With the Cultural Theory as a framework, we show that individualist, hierarchist, and egalitarian perspectives can lead to CFs that vary up to six orders of magnitude. For persistent substances, the choice in time horizon explains the differences among perspectives, whereas for nonpersistent substances, the choice in age weighting and discount rate of DALY and the type of effects or exposure routes account for differences in CFs. The calculated global impact varies by two orders of magnitude, depending on the perspective selected, and derives mainly from particulate matter formation and water scarcity for the individualist perspective and from climate change for the egalitarian perspective. Our results stress the importance of dealing with value choices in life cycle impact assessment and suggest further research for analyzing the practical consequences for life cycle assessment results. 相似文献
16.
The impact category ‘land use’ describes in the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology the environmental impacts of occupying,
reshaping and managing land for human purposes. Land use can either be the long-term use of land (e.g. for arable farming)
or changing the type of land use (e.g. from natural to urban area). The impact category ‘land use’ comprises those environmental
consequences, which impact the environment due to the land use itself, for instance through the reduction of landscape elements,
the planting of monocultures or artificial vegetation, or the sealing of surfaces. Important environmental consequences of
land use are the decreasing availability of habitats and the decreasing diversity of wildlife species. The assessment of the
environmental impacts of land use within LCA studies is the objective of this paper. Land use leads to a degradation of the
naturalness of the area utilised. In this respect the naturalness of any area can be defined as the sum of land actually not
influenced by humans and the remaining naturalness of land under use. To determine the remaining naturalness of land under
use, this study suggests applying the Hemeroby concept. “Hemeroby is a measure for the human influence on ecosystems” (Kowarik
1999). The Hemeroby level of an area describes the intensity of land use and can therefore be used to characterise different
types of land use. Characterization factors are proposed, which allow calculating the degradation of the naturalness of an
area due to a specific type of land use. Since the resource ‘nature/naturalness’ is on a larger geographical scale by far
not homogeneous, the assessment of land use needs to be regionalised. Therefore, the impact category ‘land use’ has been subdivided
into the impact sub-categories ‘land use in European biogeographic regions’. Following the general LCA framework, normalization
values for the impact sub-categories are calculated in order to facilitate the evaluation of the characterization results
with regard to their share in a reference value. Weighting factors, which enable an aggregation of the results of the different
land use sub-categories and make them comparable to other impact categories (e.g. climate change or acidification) are suggested
based on the assumption that the current land use pattern in the European biogeographic regions is acceptable. 相似文献
17.
Spatially Explicit Characterization of Acidifying and Eutrophying Air Pollution in Life-Cycle Assessment 总被引:1,自引:0,他引:1
Mark A. J. Huijbregts Wolfgang Schöpp Evert Verkuijlen Reinout Heijungs Lucas Reijnders 《Journal of Industrial Ecology》2000,4(3):75-92
Abstract: Simple models are often used to assess the potential impact of acidifying and eutrophying substances released during the life cycle of products. As fate, background depositions, and ecosystem sensitivity are not included in these models, environmental life-cycle assessment of products (LCA) may produce incorrect results for these impact categories. This paper outlines the spatially explicit regional air pollution information and simulation model (RAINSLCA), which was developed for the calculation of acidification and terrestrial eutrophication potentials of ammonia (NH3) and nitrogen oxide (NOx) air emissions and acidification potentials for sulfur dioxide (SO2) air emissions for Europe and a number of European regions, taking fate, 相似文献
18.
Vanessa Bach Franziska Möller Natalia Finogenova Yasmine Emara Matthias Finkbeiner 《The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment》2016,21(10):1463-1472
Purpose
Ocean acidification due to the absorption of increasing amounts of atmospheric carbon dioxide has become a severe problem in the recent years as more and more marine species are influenced by the decreasing pH value as well as by the reduced carbonate ion concentration. So far, no characterization model exists for ocean acidification. This paper aims to establish such a characterization model to allow for the necessary future inclusion of ocean acidification in life cycle assessment (LCA) case studies.Methods
Based on a cause-effect chain for ocean acidification, the substances carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, and methane were identified as relevant for this impact category. In a next step, the fate factor representing the substances’ share absorbed by the ocean due to conversion, distribution, and dissolution is determined. Then, the fate sensitivity factor is established reflecting the changes in the marine environment due to the amount of released hydrogen ions per gram of substance (category indicator). Finally, fate and fate sensitivity factors of each substance are multiplied and set in relation to the reference substance, carbon dioxide, thereby delivering the respective characterization factors (in kg CO2 eq) at midpoint level.Results and discussion
Characterization factors are provided for carbon monoxide (0.87 kg CO2 eq), carbon dioxide (1 kg CO2 eq), and methane (0.84 kg CO2 eq), which allow conversion of inventory results of these substances into category indicator results for ocean acidification. Inventory data of these substances is available in common LCA databases and software. Hence, the developed method is directly applicable. In a subsequent contribution analysis, the relative contribution of the three selected substances, along with other known acidifying substances, to the ocean acidification potential of 100 different materials was studied. The contribution analysis confirmed carbon dioxide as the predominant substance responsible for more than 97 % of the total ocean acidification potential. However, the influence of other acidifying substances, e.g., sulfur dioxide, should not be neglected.Conclusions
Evaluation of substances contributing to ocean acidification is of growing importance since the acidity of oceans has been increasing steadily over the last decades. The introduced approach can be applied to evaluate product system related impacts of ocean acidification and include those into current LCA practice.19.
Ralph K. Rosenbaum Till M. Bachmann Lois Swirsky Gold Mark A. J. Huijbregts Olivier Jolliet Ronnie Juraske Annette Koehler Henrik F. Larsen Matthew MacLeod Manuele Margni Thomas E. McKone Jérôme Payet Marta Schuhmacher Dik van de Meent Michael Z. Hauschild 《The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment》2008,13(7):532-546
Background, aim and scope In 2005, a comprehensive comparison of life cycle impact assessment toxicity characterisation models was initiated by the
United Nations Environment Program (UNEP)–Society for Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC) Life Cycle Initiative,
directly involving the model developers of CalTOX, IMPACT 2002, USES-LCA, BETR, EDIP, WATSON and EcoSense. In this paper,
we describe this model comparison process and its results—in particular the scientific consensus model developed by the model
developers. The main objectives of this effort were (1) to identify specific sources of differences between the models’ results
and structure, (2) to detect the indispensable model components and (3) to build a scientific consensus model from them, representing
recommended practice.
Materials and methods A chemical test set of 45 organics covering a wide range of property combinations was selected for this purpose. All models
used this set. In three workshops, the model comparison participants identified key fate, exposure and effect issues via comparison
of the final characterisation factors and selected intermediate outputs for fate, human exposure and toxic effects for the
test set applied to all models.
Results Through this process, we were able to reduce inter-model variation from an initial range of up to 13 orders of magnitude down
to no more than two orders of magnitude for any substance. This led to the development of USEtox, a scientific consensus model
that contains only the most influential model elements. These were, for example, process formulations accounting for intermittent
rain, defining a closed or open system environment or nesting an urban box in a continental box.
Discussion The precision of the new characterisation factors (CFs) is within a factor of 100–1,000 for human health and 10–100 for freshwater
ecotoxicity of all other models compared to 12 orders of magnitude variation between the CFs of each model, respectively.
The achieved reduction of inter-model variability by up to 11 orders of magnitude is a significant improvement.
Conclusions USEtox provides a parsimonious and transparent tool for human health and ecosystem CF estimates. Based on a referenced database,
it has now been used to calculate CFs for several thousand substances and forms the basis of the recommendations from UNEP-SETAC’s
Life Cycle Initiative regarding characterisation of toxic impacts in life cycle assessment.
Recommendations and perspectives We provide both recommended and interim (not recommended and to be used with caution) characterisation factors for human health
and freshwater ecotoxicity impacts. After a process of consensus building among stakeholders on a broad scale as well as several
improvements regarding a wider and easier applicability of the model, USEtox will become available to practitioners for the
calculation of further CFs.
Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
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Ralph K. RosenbaumEmail: |
20.
Aim, Scope and background Given the communication limitation of a damage-oriented approach, the question addressed in this paper is how normalisation
can be developed instead. Normalisation of product service systems without value choices is, in accordance to ISO 14042, suitable
for external communication. Reason normalisation approaches use a geographically-defined baseline year of emissions, optionally
combined with politically established target emissions (Guinée 2002, Stranddorf et al. 2001). In contradiction to these approaches,
this paper aims to draw up the general structure of an alternative normalisation procedure. The normalisation procedure suggested
here is based on environmental quality objectives (EQO), in order to streamline the result to include as few output parameters
as possible, without compromising the scientific robustness of the method.
Main Features This article describes a normalisation procedure based on environmental quality objectives. Comparison between this approach
and a damage-oriented approach is conducted. The relevant working area concerning dose and effect is evaluated. Then a discussion
is conducted focusing on the trade-off necessary to achieve an integrated category indicator, covering the following issues;
model reliability, user applicability and the unambiguously of the result.
Result A damage-oriented approach will have to take into account all the defined consequences from all impact categories that affect
the safeguards in parallel. In other words, each impact category indicator and its potential effects on all safeguards must
be evaluated and accounted for. In the case where a single category indicator cannot be found without utilising value choices,
a number of category indicators will then have to constitute an intermediate category indicator result, where weighting must
be applied in order to streamline the result. In contrast to the above approach, the suggested normalisation procedure utilises
the precautionary principle with respect to the essential EQO in order to achieve a category indicator result, called a critical
load category indicator result. In practice, this means that the number of figures in an LCIA-profile based on critical load
will always be the same as the number of impact categories.
Conclusions The suggested EQO normalisation procedure forms a set of critical loads per impact category, where each is defined by a critical
load function where linearity is defined between a zero load and the critical load. This procedure will affect the temporal
resolution and the field of application of the LCIA method. The positive aspect is that the suggested normalisation procedure
renders the method applicable for long-lived products like, for example, buildings or other infrastructures. This aspect is
gained by reducing the damage-oriented resolution. Consequently, for long-lived products where the main environmental loads
will appear in the future, it is hard to assess by a damage-oriented LCIA method (if all boundary conditions are not assumed
to be fixed). The EQO normalisation method will, in this respect, improve the overall reliability of the outcome of an LCA
when long-lived products are assessed. For short-lived products, adequate boundary conditions can be achieved, and for this
reason a damage-oriented approach will have the possibility to address current consequences. Nevertheless, a damage-oriented
approach working area is not applicable beneath thresholds unlike the EQO normalisation procedure. The most effective decision
support of short-lived products is therefore achieved when both approaches are applied.
Outlook A complementary paper will be produced where the described normalisation procedure is exemplified in a case study, with special
interest on assessment of chemical substances. 相似文献