Physicochemical modelling of the classical steelmaking route for life cycle inventory analysis

Goal, scope and background  

Integrating environmental issues into the traditional product design process, for powerful eco-efficiency, is now one of the major priorities for steelmakers. Life cycle assessment (LCA) is currently undertaken as the most holistic approach for assessing environmental impact and selecting new technologies to reduce emissions for steel industry. However, in order to identify new ways for environmental friendly production of steel, it is essential to carry out the process Life cycle inventory (LCI) which is the core part of LCA. According to LCA practitioners, the quality and the availability of data are the main important limiting factors when applying this methodology for new steelmaking processes without large industrial application. In this paper, we propose a new approach of LCIA of steelmaking, based on the simulation of traditional processes which guarantees the quality of data, the mass and the energy balances. This approach is validated for an existing integrated plant and will be used to assess the inventory for breakthrough steelmaking technologies.     

A review of methodological issues affecting LCA of novel food products

Background, aim, and scope  

Life cycle assessment (LCA) was initially developed to answer questions about the environmental impact of available products and services, implying that the product system under study was possible to investigate in detail; however, if new products or processes are to be evaluated, several complications occur. So, this paper aims to review the methodological issues that need careful attention when LCA is used for evaluating novel products, processes, or production from an environmental standpoint, as well as to draw some recommendations related to the best approach when dealing with them.     

On the link between economic and environmental performance of Swiss dairy farms of the alpine area

Purpose

Promoting the economic and environmental performance of Swiss farms is a major objective of Swiss agricultural policy. In the present paper, we investigate the relationship between the economic and global environmental performance of the Swiss dairy farms in the alpine area.

Methods

The analysis relies on a sample of 56 dairy farms from the Farm Accountancy Data Network, for which highly precise and comprehensive Life Cycle Assessments have been carried out. The work income per family work unit is used as indicator of the economic performance of a farm. The so-called global environmental performance of a farm is, for its part, measured by means of an eco-efficiency indicator for each environmental impact considered (demand for non-renewable energy resources, eutrophication potential, aquatic ecotoxicity potential, human toxicity potential and land use) and of an aggregate eco-efficiency indicator assessed using a Data Envelopment Analysis-based approach. The relationship between economic and global environmental performance is assessed by means of non-parametric Spearman??s rank correlation analysis.

Results

The results of the analysis reveal the existence of a positive relationship between economic and global environmental performance. This positive relationship exists for all environmental issues considered and thus also for the aggregate eco-efficiency indicator. Its strength, however, substantially varies from one issue to another.

Conclusions

This study provides the evidence that there is no trade-off between economic and global environmental farm performance. When they improve their economic performance, farms also tend to improve their global environmental performance and vice versa. This finding is of central relevance for policy-makers as it should contribute to improving the acceptance among farmers of the environmental objectives of Swiss agricultural policy in terms of an increase in environmental resource use productivity. In this sense this work provides valuable insights into the sustainable performance of the Swiss dairy sector in the alpine area.     

Life cycle assessment and eco-efficiency analysis of drinking cups used at public events

Background, aim, and scope  

At the request of the Public Waste Agency for the Flemish Region, the Flemish Institute for Technological Research performed a life cycle assessment (LCA), according to the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 14040 procedures (ISO 1997, 1998, 2000, and ISO 2006), followed by an eco-efficiency analysis of four alternative types of drinking cups for use at public events. The results of the LCA study served as input for the eco-efficiency analysis in which the costs related to the four cup systems were studied and combined with the environmental impacts. The objective of this study was to gain insight into the current environmental impacts and costs related to existing systems for drinking cups at public events in Flanders (Belgium) in order to outline a well-founded policy with regard to this subject. Since the results of this comparative study are publicly available, a critical review was performed according to ISO 14040 (review by interested parties, using a review panel) after each stage (goal and scope, data inventory, impact analysis/interpretation, eco-efficiency analysis) during the study.     

Eco-efficiency analysis by basf: the method

Intention, Goal, Scope, Background  BASF has developed the tool of eco-efficiency analysis to address not only strategic issues, but also issues posed by the marketplace, politics and research. It was a goal to develop a tool for decision-making processes which is useful for a lot of applications in chemistry and other industries. Objectives. The objectives were the development of a common tool, which is usable in a simple way by LCA-experts and understandable by a lot of people without any experience in this field. The results should be shown in such a way that complex studies are understandable in one view. Methods  The method belongs to the rules of ISO 14040 ff. Beyond these life cycle aspect costs, calculations are added and summarized together with the ecological results to establish an eco-efficiency portfolio. Results and Discussion  The results of the studies are shown in a simple way, the eco-efficiency portfolio. Therefore, ecological data are summarized in a special way as described in this paper. It could be shown that the weighting factors, which are used in our method, have a negligible impact on the results. In most cases, the input data have an important impact on the results of the study. Conclusions. It could be shown that the newly developed eco-efficiency analysis is a new tool, which is usable for a lot of problems in decision-making processes. It is a tool which compares different alternatives of a defined customer benefit over the whole life cycle. Recommendations and Outlook  This new method can be a helpful tool in different fields of the evaluation of product or process alternatives. It can be used in research and development as well as in the optimization of customer processes and products. It is an analytical tool for getting more sustainable processes and products in the future     

Determination of GHG contributions by subsystems in the oil palm supply chain using the LCA approach

Purpose  

With increasing attention on sustainable development, the environmental and social relevance of palm oil production are now important trade issues. The life cycle assessment (LCA) study of Malaysian oil palm products from mineral soils including palm biodiesel was aimed to provide baseline information on the environmental performance of the industry for drawing up policies pertaining to the sustainable production. The share of greenhouse gas (GHG) contribution by the various subsystems in the oil palm supply chain is considered here.     

The sustainability of communicative packaging concepts in the food supply chain. A case study: part 1. Life cycle assessment

Purpose  

In recent years, a new perspective for food packaging has emerged as a result of several issues like quality, safety, competitive prices or providing of useful information to consumers. This new perspective is called communicative packaging. Communicative packaging may influence consumers/companies on purchasing decisions. Since the environmental evaluation of such systems has not yet been performed, this paper is focused on the environmental evaluation of a flexible best-before-date (FBBD) communicative device on a packaging consumer unit and its implications on reducing environmental impacts related to fresh products. This consumer unit consists of a nanoclay-based polylactic acid tray filled with pork chops.     

Cradle-to-gate environmental assessment of enzyme products produced industrially in denmark by novozymes A/S

Goal, Scope and Background  

Enzymes are biological catalysts with an enormous capacity to increase the speed of a huge variety biochemical reactions. Industrially produced enzymes are used in a broad variety of sectors to increase quality, speed and yield of processes, and reduce energy consumption and use of hazardous chemicals. The present paper provides a methodological framework for analysing environmental impacts of enzyme products and environmental data for five characteristic enzyme products.     

Eco-efficiency

Goal, Scope and Background The eco-efficiency analysis and portfolio is a powerful decision support tool for various strategic and marketing issues. Since its original academic development, the approach has been refined during the last decade and applied to a multitude of projects. BASF, as possibly the most prominent company using and developing this tool, has applied the eco-efficiency approach to more than 300 projects in the last 7 years. One of the greatest difficulties is to cover both dimensions of eco-efficiency (costs or value added and environmental impact) in a comparable manner. This is particularly a challenge for the eco-efficiency analyses of products. Methods In this publication, an important approach and field of application dealing with product decisions based on the combination of Life Cycle Cost (LCC) and Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is described in detail. Special emphasis is put on the quantitative assessment of the relation of costs and environmental impacts. In conventional LCA an assessment of environmental impact categories is often made by normalization with inhabitant equivalents. This is necessary to be able to compare the different environmental impact categories, because of each different unit. For the proposed eco-efficiency analysis, the costs of products or processes are also normalized with adapted gross domestic product figures. Results and Discussion The ratio between normalized environmental impact categories and normalized costs (R_E,C) is used for the graphical presentation of the results in an eco-efficiency portfolio. For the interpretation of the results of an eco-efficiency analysis, it is important to distinguish ratios R_E,C which are higher than one from ratios lower than one. In the first case, the environmental impact is higher than the cost impact, while the inverse is true in the second case. This is very important for defining which kind of improvement is needed and defining strategic management decisions. The paper shows a statistical evaluation of the R_E,C factor based on the results of different eco-efficiency analyses made by BASF. For industries based on large material flows (e.g. chemicals, steel, metals, agriculture), the R_E,C factor is typically higher than one. Conclusions and Recommendations This contribution shows that LCC and LCA may be combined in a way that they mirror the concept of eco-efficiency. LCAs that do not consider LCC may be of very limited use for company management. For that very reason, corporations should install a data management system that ensures equal information on both sides of the eco-efficiency coin.     

Carton for beverage—A decade of process efficiency improvements enhancing its environmental profile

Purpose  

Chain efficiency is currently a key issue for evaluating the sustainability of products and processes. Thus, the objective of this study was to evaluate how the overall efficiency process improvement carried out in the upstream manufacturing chain of LPB (Liquid Packaging Board) has affected the environmental profile over the last 10 years.     

Eco-efficiency of disposable and reusable surgical instruments—a scissors case

Purpose

In recent years, the rising costs and infection control lead to an increasing use of disposable surgical instruments in daily hospital practices. Environmental impacts have risen as a result across the life cycle of plastic or stainless steel disposables. Compared with the conventional reusable products, different qualities and quantities of disposable scissors have to be taken into account. An eco-efficiency analysis can shed some light for the potential contribution of those products towards a sustainable development.

Methods

Disposable scissors made of either stainless steel or fibre-reinforced plastic were compared with reusable stainless steel scissors for 4,500 use cycles of surgical scissors used in Germany. A screening life cycle assessment (LCA) and a life cycle costing were performed by following ISO 14040 procedure and total cost of ownership (TCO) from a customer perspective, respectively. Subsequently, their results were used to conduct an eco-efficiency analysis.

Results and discussion

The screening LCA showed a clear ranking regarding the environmental impacts of the three types of scissors. The impacts of the disposable steel product exceeds those of the two others by 80 % (disposable plastic scissors) and 99 % (reusable steel scissors), respectively. Differences in TCO were smaller, however, revealing significant economic advantages of the reusable stainless steel product under the constraints and assumptions of this case study. Accordingly, the reusable stainless steel product was revealed as the most eco-efficient choice. It was followed by the plastic scissors which turned out to be significantly more environmentally sound than the disposable stainless steel scissors but also more cost-intensive.

Conclusions

The overall results of the study prove to be robust against variations of critical parameters for the prescribed case study. The sensitivity analyses were also conducted for LCA and TCO results. LCA results are shown to be reliable throughout all assumptions and data uncertainties. TCO results are more dependent on the choice of case study parameters whereby the price of the disposable products can severely influence the comparison of the stainless steel and the plastic scissors. The costs related to the sterilisation of the reusable product are strongly case-specific and can reduce the economic benefit of the reusable scissors to zero. Differences in environmental and economic break-even analyses underline the comparatively high share of externalised environmental costs in the case of the disposable steel product.     

Life cycle assessment (LCA) applied to the process industry: a review

Purpose

Life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology is a well-established analytical method to quantify environmental impacts, which has been mainly applied to products. However, recent literature would suggest that it has also the potential as an analysis and design tool for processes, and stresses that one of the biggest challenges of this decade in the field of process systems engineering (PSE) is the development of tools for environmental considerations.

Method

This article attempts to give an overview of the integration of LCA methodology in the context of industrial ecology, and focuses on the use of this methodology for environmental considerations concerning process design and optimization.

Results

The review identifies that LCA is often used as a multi-objective optimization of processes: practitioners use LCA to obtain the inventory and inject the results into the optimization model. It also shows that most of the LCA studies undertaken on process analysis consider the unit processes as black boxes and build the inventory analysis on fixed operating conditions.

Conclusions

The article highlights the interest to better assimilate PSE tools with LCA methodology, in order to produce a more detailed analysis. This will allow optimizing the influence of process operating conditions on environmental impacts and including detailed environmental results into process industry.     

Life cycle assessment of gasoline in Indonesia

Purpose  

In the Indonesian transportation sector, gasoline is the most consumed fuel; in 2008 it accounted for 60% of the total fuel consumption in transportation. Increasing concern regarding environmental issues, particularly urban air quality, makes the utilization of gasoline in transport a crucial aspect to be analyzed. However, besides tailpipe emissions, there are many upstream processes when producing gasoline which need to be evaluated in terms of impacts to the environment.     

Use of LCA as a development tool within early research: challenges and issues across different sectors

Purpose

The aim of this paper is to highlight the challenges that face the use of life cycle assessment (LCA) for the development of emerging technologies. LCA has great potential for driving the development of products and processes with improved environmental credentials when used at the early research stage, not only to compare novel processing with existing commercial alternatives but to help identify environmental hotspots. Its use in this way does however provide methodological and practical difficulties, often exacerbated by the speed of analysis required to enable development decisions to be made. Awareness and understanding of the difficulties in such cases is vital for all involved with the development cycle.

Methods

This paper employs three case studies across the diverse sectors of nanotechnology, lignocellulosic ethanol (biofuel), and novel food processes demonstrating both the synergy of issues across different sectors and highlighting the challenges when applying LCA for early research. Whilst several researchers have previously highlighted some of the issues with use of LCA techniques at an early stage, most have focused on a specific product, process development, or sector. The use of the three case studies here is specifically designed to highlight conclusively that such issues are prevalent to use of LCA in early research irrespective of the technology being assessed.

Results and discussion

The four focus areas for the paper are system boundaries, scaling issues, data availability, and uncertainty. Whilst some of the issues identified will be familiar to all LCA practitioners as problems shared with standard LCAs, their importance and difficulty is compounded by factors distinct to novel processes as emerging technology is often associated with unknown future applications, unknown industrial scales, and wider data gaps that contribute to the level of LCA uncertainty. These issues, in addition with others that are distinct to novel applications, such as the challenges of comparing laboratory scale data with well-established commercial processing, are exacerbated by the requirement for rapid analysis to enable development decisions to be made.

Conclusions

Based on the challenges and issues highlighted via illustration through the three case studies, it is clear that whilst transparency of information is paramount for standard LCAs, the sensitivities, complexities, and uncertainties surrounding LCAs for early research are critical. Full reporting and understanding of these must be established prior to utilising such data as part of the development cycle.     

Eco-efficiency indicator framework implemented in the metallurgical industry: part 1—a comprehensive view and benchmark

Purpose

The purpose of this work was to develop an indicator framework for the environmental sustainability benchmarking of products produced by the metallurgical industry. Sustainability differentiation has become an important issue for companies throughout the value chain. Differentiation is sometimes not attainable, due to the use of average data, lack of comparative data, certain issues being overshadowed by others, and a very narrow palette of indicators dominating the current sustainability assessments. There is a need for detailed and credible analyses, which show the current status and point out where improvements can be made. The indicator framework is developed to give a comprehensive picture of eco-efficiency, to provide methods that enable relevant comparisons as well as the tools for communicating the results. In this way, the methodology presented in this study aims to make differentiation easier and thus aid companies in driving the development toward more sustainable solutions.

Methods

The framework is based on the existing indicator framework Gaia Biorefiner, which is primarily intended for bio-based products. In this work, the framework was further developed for application in the metallurgical industry. The indicator framework is built by first looking at the issues, which are critical to the environment and global challenges seen today and which the activities of the metallurgical industry may have an impact on. Based on these issues, suitable indicators are chosen if they exist and built if they do not. The idea is that all indicators in a group form a whole, showing areas of innovation while refraining from aggregating and weighting, which often compromise a comprehensive and objective view. Both qualitative and quantitative indicators are included. The indicators are constructed following the criteria set by the EU and OECD for building indicators. Each indicator further has a benchmark. The rules for building the benchmark are connected to the indicators. Suitable data sources and criteria for the benchmark and the indicators are gathered from literature, publicly available databases, and commercial LCA software. The use of simulation tools for attaining more reliable data is also studied.

Results and discussion

The result is a visual framework consisting of ten indicator groups with one to five indicators each, totaling up to 31 indicators. These are visualized in a sustainability indicator “flower.” The flower can be further opened up to study each indicator and the reasons behind the results. The sustainability benchmark follows a methodology that is based on utilization of baseline data and sustainability criteria or limits. A simulation approach was included in the methodology to address the problem with data scarcity and data reliability. The status of the environment, current production technologies, location-specific issues, and process-specific issues all affect the result, and the aim of finding relevant comparisons that will support sustainability differentiation is answered by a scalable scoping system.

Conclusions

A new framework and its concise visualization has been built for assessing the eco-efficiency of products from the metallurgical industry, in a way that aims to answer the needs of the industry. Since there is a baseline, against which each indicator can be benchmarked, a sustainability indicator “flower” can be derived, one of the key innovations of this methodology. This approach goes beyond the usual quantification, as it is also scalable and linked to technology and its fundamental parameters. In part 2, a case study “A case study from the copper industry” tests and illustrates the methodology.

     

Eco-efficiency indicator framework implemented in the metallurgical industry: part 2—a case study from the copper industry

Purpose

Sustainability differentiation has become an important issue for companies throughout the value chain. There is thus a need for detailed and credible analyses, which show the current status and point out where improvements can be done and how. The study describes how a comprehensive product-centric eco-efficiency indicator framework can be used to evaluate, benchmark, and communicate the sustainability of a copper production value chain. The indicator framework, together with the suggested data collection and simulation methods, aims at evaluating the whole system, while still enabling a focus on scopes of different width. The status of the environment, current production technologies, location-specific and process-specific issues all play a role in achieving sustainable development.

Methods

Copper cathode production from copper ore was chosen to exemplify the developed framework. Data sets from a simulation tool were used when available and LCI databases and LCA software were utilized for the remaining steps. The value chain is analyzed and the benchmark for each indicator built according to the new Gaia Refiner indicator framework. This method enables analysis of specific production steps with a higher degree of accuracy.

Results and discussion

The case study shows how some important environmental sustainability issues in copper production can be analyzed and benchmarked within a product group. Benchmark data is collected and used in the analysis for the selected system scope. Data availability is still an issue and the example shows which areas require more information in this context so that products and value chains can be benchmarked in the future on a more consistent basis. The energy mix, chemical use, and land use contribute to potential environmental sustainability risks within the product benchmarking group, while emissions control shows competitive environmental sustainability advantages for the case study.

Conclusions

The methodology is shown to work well in highlighting the sustainability advantages and risks of value chains in copper production with the selected system scope in a visual manner through the Sustainability Indicator “Flower.” The importance of a baseline is clear. The effect of the metal ore grade on the results shows that the scalability of the analysis system is very important. Scaling the system scope up will show the differences in varying value chains and scaling the system scope down will show efficiency differences between more similar value chains, thus visualizing where innovation has the biggest impact.

     

Environmental assessment of cod (<Emphasis Type="BoldItalic">Gadus morhua</Emphasis>) from autoline fisheries

Purpose  

The main purpose of this study has been to document the environmental performance of products based on autoline-caught cod and the distribution of environmental impacts in the value chain from fishing to retail. Another aim has been to document the performed environmental improvement analyses.     

Integrated Environmental and Economic Assessment of Products and Processes

The eco-efficiency analysis method developed and used by the Öko-Institut analyzes different alternatives that fulfill a defined consumer need, from an environmental as well as an economic perspective.
Like life-cycle assessment (LCA), eco-efficiency analysis makes possible the setting of priorities in purchasing decisions or can be used to show optimization potentials in product development processes.
Eco-efficiency analysis builds upon two methods: LCA, according to ISO 14040 ff. (to assess the environmental aspects of products and processes), and life-cycle costing. Life-cycle costing results in a single figure—the total costs of ownership to one or several actors. The environmental impacts can be evaluated and aggregated as a single score or the impact category indicator results can be kept separate. In either case two single scores can be compared: the total environmental burden or the impact category indicator results, and the total costs of ownership of the alternatives under consideration.
The results can then be plotted in two-dimensional graphs that show the effectiveness of certain measures in environmental and economic terms. The efficiency is expressed as a numerical ratio of environmental savings to difference in costs.
Together with furnishing more detailed results and a discussion of additional benefits or potential barriers, eco-efficiency analysis broadens the basis for decision-making processes.     

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.