Life cycle assessment of automotive fuels: critical analysis and recommendations on the emissions inventory in the tank to wheels stage

Purpose  

As new alternative automotive fuels are being developed, life cycle assessment (LCA) is being used to assess the sustainability of these new options. A fuel LCA is commonly referred as a “Well To Wheels” analysis and calculates the environmental impacts of producing the fuel (the “Well To Tank” stage) and using it to move a car (the “Tank To Wheels” stage, TTW). The TTW environmental impacts are the main topic of this article.     

Introducing the UNEP/SETAC methodological sheets for subcategories of social LCA

Purpose  

In May 2009, the Guidelines for Social Life Cycle Assessment of Products (the Guidelines) were launched at the occasion of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 26000 (Social Responsibility) meeting in Quebec City, Canada. Developed by a United Nations Environment Programme/Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (“UNEP/SETAC”) Life Cycle Initiative project group on Social Life Cycle Assessment (S-LCA), the Guidelines provide a framework to assess social impacts across product life cycles. A year later, the Methodological Sheets for the Subcategories of Social LCA (“the Methodological Sheets”) are being made available to support practitioners engaging in the field. The Methodological Sheets provide practical guidance for conducting S-LCA case studies by offering consistent, yet flexible assistance.     

Defining the baseline in social life cycle assessment

Background, aim and scope  

A relatively broad consensus has formed that the purpose of developing and using the social life cycle assessment (SLCA) is to improve the social conditions for the stakeholders affected by the assessed product’s life cycle. To create this effect, the SLCA, among other things, needs to provide valid assessments of the consequence of the decision that it is to support. The consequence of a decision to implement a life cycle of a product can be seen as the difference between the decision being implemented and ‘non-implemented’ product life cycle. This difference can to some extent be found using the consequential environmental life cycle assessment (ELCA) methodology to identify the processes that change as a consequence of the decision. However, if social impacts are understood as certain changes in the lives of the stakeholders, then social impacts are not only related to product life cycles, meaning that by only assessing impacts related to the processes that change as a consequence of a decision, not all changes in the life situations of the stakeholders will be captured by an assessment following the consequential ELCA methodology. This article seeks to identify these impacts relating to the non-implemented product life cycle and establish indicators for their assessment.     

Application of life cycle assessment in the mining industry

Background, aim, and scope  

In spite of the increasing application of life cycle assessment (LCA) for engineering evaluation of systems and products, the application of LCA in the mining industry is limited. For example, a search in the Engineering Compendex database using the keywords “life cycle assessment” results in 2,257 results, but only 19 are related to the mining industry. Also, mining companies are increasingly adopting ISO 14001 certified environmental management systems (EMSs). A key requirement of ISO certified EMSs is continual improvement, which can be better managed with life cycle thinking. This paper presents a review of the current application of LCA in the mining industry. It discusses the current application, the issues, and challenges and makes relevant recommendations for new research to improve the current situation.     

Preliminary assessment for global warming potential of leading contributory gases from a 40-in. LCD flat-screen television

Purpose  

As liquid crystal display (LCD) flat-screen televisions increase in popularity, their potential contribution to global warming has received wide attention. This study presents global warming impacts resulting from the life cycle assessment (LCA) of LCD flat-screen televisions for key global warming contributors from the “cradle-to-gate” and use stages of the product’s life cycle. The emissions from nitrogen trifluoride (NF₃), a greenhouse gas with a global warming potential (GWP) 17,000 times more potent than carbon dioxide (CO₂), are not monitored in the Kyoto Protocol. Emissions in the cradle-to-gate and use stages were modeled in this study according to their GWP (kg CO₂ equivalent), focusing and analyzing the most significant source of NF₃ emissions.     

Effect of mine characteristics on life cycle impacts of US surface coal mining

Purpose  

This study’s aim was to understand the effect of mine characteristics on cradle-to-gate life cycle impacts of surface coal mining in the USA. Five bituminous coal strip mines were used as case studies. The study assessed the life cycle water use, land use, energy use, abiotic resource depletion, and climate change impacts.     

Multi-attribute life cycle assessment of preventive maintenance treatments on road pavements for achieving environmental sustainability

Purpose  

Although a significant number of environmental protection measures concerning industrial products and processes have emerged over the past few years, similar measures have only started to appear in road construction and related practices. There is a need for understanding what a “sustainable pavement” would entail in terms of greenhouse gas emissions and energy consumption. Since environmental impact assessment of major projects is becoming mandatory in many countries, various research projects attempt to evaluate the environmental impact of different pavement materials, technologies, or processes over the road life cycle. To support these efforts, there is a need to measure and describe different aspects of sustainability related to road pavements. In particular, keeping road pavements at high service levels through a preventive maintenance approach during the pavement service life has been proven to provide significant improvement of their performance and reduce their deterioration rate.     

On the use of possibility theory in uncertainty analysis of life cycle inventory

Purpose  

The purpose of this paper is to enhance the mathematical and physical understanding of practitioners of uncertainty analysis of life cycle inventory (LCI), on the application of possibility theory. The main questions dealt with are (1) clear definition of the terms—“necessity–possibility,” “probability,” “belief–plausibility,” and of their mutual relationships; (2) what justifies the substitution of classical probability for possibility; (3) mutual comparison of, and transformations in both senses between probability and possibility uncertainty measures; (4) how to construct meaningful input possibility measures from available probabilistic/statistic information; and (5) comparative analysis of the solutions of the problem of data uncertainty propagation in LCI, afforded, respectively, by probabilistic Monte Carlo simulation and possibilistic fuzzy interval arithmetic.     

Correlation analysis of life cycle impact assessment indicators measuring resource use

Introduction  

Even though the necessity of a sustainable use of natural resources is widely accepted, there is neither consensus on how “resource use” is clearly defined nor how it should be measured. Depending on the definition, it can comprise raw material consumption only or the consumption and pollution of natural resources. Consequently, lots of indicators can be applied, and the result of a life cycle assessment study aiming to quantify resource use seems to depend on the selection of impact categories. Therefore, this paper aims at analyzing life cycle impact assessment results obtained by means of several indicators to check if different indexes lead to similar results and if the number of indicators can be reduced.     

Assessing the validity of impact pathways for child labour and well-being in social life cycle assessment

Background, aim and scope  

Assuming that the goal of social life cycle assessment (SLCA) is to assess damage and benefits on its ‘area of protection’ (AoP) as accurately as possible, it follows that the impact pathways, describing the cause effect relationship between indicator and the AoP, should have a consistent theoretical foundation so the inventory results can be associated with a predictable damage or benefit to the AoP. This article uses two concrete examples from the work on SLCA to analyse to what extent this is the case in current practice. One considers whether indicators included in SLCA approaches can validly assess impacts on the well-being of the stakeholder, whereas the other example addresses whether the ‘incidence of child labour’ is a valid measure for impacts on the AoPs.     

Ecotoxicity impact assessment of laundry products: a comparison of USEtox and critical dilution volume approaches

Purpose  

There is an increasing interest in the assessment and comparison of the environmental impacts of consumer products. Schemes such as Grenelle de l’Environnement, currently under development in France, aim to assess and communicate the life cycle impacts of consumer products. Freshwater ecotoxicity is one of the impact categories under consideration. This paper presents the results of a comparison of USEtox and critical dilution volume (CDV) approaches for assessing laundry products.     

A modeling framework to evaluate sustainability of building construction based on LCSA

Purpose

Life cycle sustainability assessment (LCSA) is a method that combines three life cycle techniques, viz. environmental life cycle assessment (LCA), life cycle costing (LCC), and social life cycle assessment (S-LCA). This study is intended to develop a LCSA framework and a case study of LCSA for building construction projects.

Methods

A LCSA framework is proposed to combine the three life cycle techniques. In the modeling phases, three life cycle models are used in the LCSA framework, namely the environmental model of construction (EMoC), cost model of construction (CMoC), and social-impact model of construction (SMoC). A residential building project is applied to the proposed LCSA framework from “cradle to the end of construction” processes to unveil the limitations and future research needs of the LCSA framework.

Results and discussion

It is found that material extraction and manufacturing account for over 90 % to the environmental impacts while they contribute to 61 % to the construction cost. In terms of social impacts, on-site construction performs better than material extraction and manufacturing, and on-site construction has larger contributions to the positive social impacts. The model outcomes are validated through interviews with local experts in Hong Kong. The result indicates that the performance of the models is generally satisfactory.

Conclusions

The case study has confirmed that LCSA is feasible. Being one of the first applications of LCSA on building construction, this study fulfills the current research gap and paves the way for future development of LCSA.

     

Environmental product development: replacement of an epoxy-based coating by a polyester-based coating

Purpose  

The purpose of this study is to document and assess the environmental impacts associated with two competing powder coating solutions using current life cycle assessment (LCA) methods and available data and to check whether there is a conflict between environmental performance and occupational health issues.     

Life cycle assessment at nanoscale: review and recommendations

Purpose  

The need for a systematic evaluation of the human and environmental impacts of engineered nanomaterials (ENMs) has been widely recognized, and a growing body of literature is available endorsing life cycle assessment (LCA) as a valid tool for the same. The purpose of this study is to evaluate how the nano-specific environmental assessments are being done within the existing framework of life cycle inventory and impact assessment and whether these frameworks are valid and/or whether they can be modified for nano-evaluations.     

Tourism LCA: state-of-the-art and perspectives

Background, aim and scope  

Records over the last decades indicate a high growth rate for tourism, making it one of the most important industries in the world economy. Since estimates outline a consolidation of this trend, an accurate identification and assessment of the environmental impacts related to the life cycle of tourist products is increasingly necessary. By reviewing and comparing Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) case studies in the tourism sector, this paper aims to identify life cycle approaches that may be used as a basis for the subsequent development of sectorial Life Cycle Thinking guidelines.     

Taking a life cycle look at crianza wine production in Spain: where are the bottlenecks?

Background, aim, and scope  

This paper presents the results of the LCA of wine production in the region of La Rioja (Spain). The aim of this study was twofold: to identify the most critical life cycle stages of an aged Spanish wine from the point of view of the associated environmental impacts and to compare its environmental performance with that of other wines and beers for which comparable information could be found in the scientific literature. All the product’s life cycle stages were accounted for, namely: grapes cultivation (viticulture), wine making and bottling, distribution and sales, and disposal of empty bottles.     

Parameter uncertainty in LCA: stochastic sampling under correlation

Purpose  

At the parameter level, data inaccuracy, data gaps, and the use of unrepresentative data have been recognized as sources of uncertainty in life cycle assessment (LCA). In many LCA uncertainty studies, parameter distributions were created based on the measured variability or on “rules of thumb,” but the possible existence of correlation was not explored. The correlation between parameters may alter the sampling space and, thus, yield unrepresentative results. The objective of this article is to describe the effect of correlation between input parameters (and the final product) on the outcome of an uncertainty analysis, carried out for an LCA of an agricultural product.     

A system dynamics approach in LCA to account for temporal effects—a consequential energy LCI of car body-in-whites

Purpose  

The purpose of this paper is to take steps towards a life cycle assessment that is able to account for changes over time in resource flows and environmental impacts. The majority of life cycle inventory (LCI) studies assume that computation parameters are constants or fixed functions of time. This assumption limits the opportunities to account for temporal effects because it precludes consideration of the dynamics of the product system.