Life cycle sustainability assessment of chemical processes

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Xu, Di; Lv, Liping; Ren, Jingzheng

2017-01-01

In this study, an integrated vector-based three-dimensional (3D) methodology for the life cycle sustainability assessment (LCSA) of chemical process alternatives is proposed. In the methodology, a 3D criteria assessment system is first established by using the life cycle assessment, the life cycl...

A case study by life cycle assessment

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Shuyun

2017-05-01

This article aims to assess the potential environmental impact of an electrical grinder during its life cycle. The Life Cycle Inventory Analysis was conducted based on the Simplified Life Cycle Assessment (SLCA) Drivers that calculated from the Valuation of Social Cost and Simplified Life Cycle Assessment Model (VSSM). The detailed results for LCI can be found under Appendix II. The Life Cycle Impact Assessment was performed based on Eco-indicator 99 method. The analysis results indicated that the major contributor to the environmental impact as it accounts for over 60% overall SLCA output. In which, 60% of the emission resulted from the logistic required for the maintenance activities. This was measured by conducting the hotspot analysis. After performing sensitivity analysis, it is evidenced that changing fuel type results in significant decrease environmental footprint. The environmental benefit can also be seen from the negative output values of the recycling activities. By conducting Life Cycle Assessment analysis, the potential environmental impact of the electrical grinder was investigated.

An integrated life cycle inventory for demolition processes in the context of life cycle sustainability assessment

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bozhilova-Kisheva, Kossara Petrova; Hu, Mingming; van Roekel, Eric

2012-01-01

According to the Life Cycle Assessment in Building and Construction: State-of-the-Art Report (2003), the dismantling and demolition stage of the building life cycle is only sometimes included in the Life Cycle Inventory (LCI) when doing Life Cycle Assessments (LCA). The reason that it is less...... inventoried in a traditional LCA maybe because this stage is expected to have a negligible environmental impact comparing to other stages in the life cycle of the buildings. When doing a life cycle sustainability assessment considering not only environmental but also economic and social impacts, the impacts...

Life cycle assessment : Past, present, and future

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Guinée, Jeroen B.; Heijungs, Reinout; Huppes, Gjalt; Zamagni, Alessandra; Masoni, Paolo; Buonamici, Roberto; Ekvall, Tomas; Rydberg, Tomas

2011-01-01

Environmental life cycle assessment (LCA) has developed fast over the last three decades. Whereas LCA developed from merely energy analysis to a comprehensive environmental burden analysis in the 1970s, full-fledged life cycle impact assessment and life cycle costing models were introduced in the

Life cycle assessment of products and technologies. LCA Symposium

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Koukkari, H.; Nors, M. (eds.)

2009-12-15

VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland organised a Symposium 'Life Cycle Assessment of Products and Technologies' on the 6th of October, 2009. The Symposium gave a good overview of methods, tools and applications of Life Cycle Assessment developed and utilised in several technology fields of VTT. The 12 Symposium papers deal with recent LCA studies on products and technologies. The scope ranges from beverage cups to urban planning, from inventory databases to rating systems. Topical issues relating to climate change concern biorefineries and the overall impacts of the utilisation of biomass. The calculation of carbon footprints is also introduced through paper products and magazines. One example of LCA tools developed at VTT addresses cement manufacturing. VTT's transport emission database, LIPASTO, was introduced in detail. The use of LCA methods and life cycle thinking is described in various contexts: product development in relation to precision instruments; selection of materials and work processes in relation to sediment remediation project; and procedures of sustainability rating through VTT's office building Digitalo. The Climate Bonus project presented a demonstrated ICT support that informs about the greenhouse gas emissions and carbon footprints of households. (orig.)

Towards Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Marzia Traverso

2010-10-01

Full Text Available Sustainability is nowadays accepted by all stakeholders as a guiding principle for both public policy making and corporate strategies. However, the biggest challenge for most organizations remains in the real and substantial implementation of the sustainability concept. The core of the implementation challenge is the question, how sustainability performance can be measured, especially for products and processes. This paper explores the current status of Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment (LCSA for products and processes. For the environmental dimension well established tools like Life Cycle Assessment are available. For the economic and social dimension, there is still need for consistent and robust indicators and methods. In addition to measuring the individual sustainability dimensions, another challenge is a comprehensive, yet understandable presentation of the results. The “Life Cycle Sustainability Dashboard” and the “Life Cycle Sustainability Triangle” are presented as examples for communication tools for both experts and non expert stakeholders.

Global guidance on environmental life cycle impact assessment indicators: Progress and case study

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Frischknecht, Rolf; Fantke, Peter; Tschümperlin, Laura

2016-01-01

Purpose The life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) guidance flagship project of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)/Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC) Life Cycle Initiative aims at providing global guidance and building scientific consensus on environmental LCIA in...

Recent developments in Life Cycle Assessment

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Finnveden, Göran; Hauschild, Michael Z.; Ekvall, Tomas; Guinée, Jeroen B.; Heijungs, Reinout; Hellweg, Stefanie; Koehler, Annette; Pennington, David; Suh, Sangwon

2009-01-01

Life Cycle Assessment is a tool to assess the environmental impacts and resources used throughout a product's life cycle, i.e., from raw material acquisition, via production and use phases, to waste management. The methodological development in LCA has been strong, and LCA is broadly applied in

A Framework for BIM-Enabled Life-Cycle Information Management of Construction Project

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Xun Xu

2014-08-01

Full Text Available BIM has been widely used in project management, but on the whole the applications have been scattered and the BIM models have not been deployed throughout the whole project life-cycle. Each participant builds their own BIM, so there is a major problem in how to integrate these dynamic and fragmented data together. In order to solve this problem, this paper focuses on BIM-based life-cycle information management and builds a framework for BIM-enabled life-cycle information management. To organize the life-cycle information well, the information components and information flow during the project life-cycle are defined. Then, the application of BIM in life-cycle information management is analysed. This framework will provide a unified platform for information management and ensure data integrity.

Life Cycle Assessment of Greenhouse Gas Emissions

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Reijnders, L.; Chen, W.Y.; Suzuki, T.; Lackner, M.

2015-01-01

Life cycle assessments of greenhouse gas emissions have been developed for analyzing products "from cradle to grave": from resource extraction to waste disposal. Life cycle assessment methodology has also been applied to economies, trade between countries, aspects of production, and waste

Developing Asset Life Cycle Management capabilities through the implementation of Asset Life Cycle Plans – an Action Research project

OpenAIRE

Ruitenburg, Richard; Braaksma, Anne Johannes Jan

2017-01-01

Asset Life Cycle Management is a strategic approach to managing physical assets over their complete life cycle. However, the literature and the recent ISO 55,000 standard do not offer guidance as to how to develop such an approach. This paper investigates the main capabilities for Asset Life Cycle Management by means of a four year Action Research project implementing Asset Life Cycle Plans. Five main capabilities emerged: 1. strategic information use; 2. alignment of operations and strategy;...

Defining the baseline in social life cycle assessment

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jørgensen, Andreas; Finkbeiner, Matthias; Jørgensen, Michael Søgaard

2010-01-01

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...

Life cycle assessment of greenhouse gas emissions

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Reijnders, L.; Chen, W.Y.; Seiner, J.; Suzuki, T.; Lackner, M.

2012-01-01

Life cycle assessments of greenhouse gas emissions have been developed for analyzing products "from cradle to grave": from resource extraction to waste disposal. Life cycle assessment methodology has also been applied to economies, trade between countries, aspects of production and to waste

Life cycle assessment of greenhouse gas emissions

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Reijnders, L.; Chen, W.-Y.; Suzuki, T.; Lackner, M.

2017-01-01

Life cycle assessments of greenhouse gas emissions have been developed for analyzing products “from cradle to grave”: from resource extraction to waste disposal. Life cycle assessment methodology has also been applied to economies, trade between countries, aspects of production, and waste

Specification of life cycle assessment in nuclear power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Abbaspour, M.; Kargari, N.; Mastouri, R.

2008-01-01

Life Cycle Assessment is an environmental management tool for assessing the environmental impacts of a product of a process. life cycle assessment involves the evaluation of environmental impacts through all stages of life cycle of a product or process. In other words life cycle assessment has a c radle to grave a pproach. Some results of life cycle assessment consist of pollution prevention, energy efficient system, material conservation, economic system and sustainable development. All power generation technologies affect the environment in one way or another. The main environmental impact does not always occur during operation of power plant. The life cycle assessment of nuclear power has entailed studying the entire fuel cycle from mine to deep repository, as well as the construction, operation and demolition of the power station. Nuclear power plays an important role in electricity production for several countries. even though the use of nuclear power remains controversial. But due to the shortage of fossil fuel energy resources many countries have started to try more alternation to their sources of energy production. A life cycle assessment could detect all environmental impacts of nuclear power from extracting resources, building facilities and transporting material through the final conversion to useful energy services

Life-Cycle Assessment of Cookstove Fuels in India and China

Science.gov (United States)

A life cycle assessment (LCA) was conducted to compare the environmental footprint of current and possible fuels used for cooking within China and India. Current fuel mix profiles are compared to scenarios of projected differences in and/or cleaner cooking fuels. Results are repo...

Developing the Social Life Cycle Assessment

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jørgensen, Andreas

social audits. Through an interview with a social auditor it is suggested that the auditor varies the procedures for carrying out the audit in order to get the most valid result. For example, the auditor has to take into account the various tricks a company in a given context normally uses to cheat......This thesis seeks to add to the development of the Social Life Cycle Assessment (SLCA), which can be defined as an assessment method for assessing the social impacts connected to the life cycle of a product, service or system. In such development it is important to realise that the SLCA is only...... appealing to the extent that it does what it is supposed to do. In this thesis, this goal of SLCA is defined as to support improvements of the social conditions for the stakeholders throughout the life cycle of the assessed product, system or service. This effect should arise through decision makers...

Antifreeze life cycle assessment (LCA

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kesić Jelena

2005-01-01

Full Text Available Antifreeze based on ethylene glycol is a commonly used commercial product The classification of ethylene glycol as a toxic material increased the disposal costs for used antifreeze and life cycle assessment became a necessity. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA considers the identification and quantification of raw materials and energy inputs and waste outputs during the whole life cycle of the analyzed product. The objectives of LCA are the evaluation of impacts on the environment and improvements of processes in order to reduce and/or eliminate waste. LCA is conducted through a mathematical model derived from mass and energy balances of all the processes included in the life cycle. In all energy processes the part of energy that can be transformed into some other kind of energy is called exergy. The concept of exergy considers the quality of different types of energy and the quality of different materials. It is also a connection between energy and mass transformations. The whole life cycle can be described by the value of the total loss of exergy. The physical meaning of this value is the loss of material and energy that can be used. The results of LCA are very useful for the analyzed products and processes and for the determined conditions under which the analysis was conducted. The results of this study indicate that recycling is the most satisfactory solution for the treatment of used antifreeze regarding material and energy consumption but the re-use of antifreeze should not be neglected as a solution.

Social Life Cycle Assessment: An Introduction

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Moltesen, Andreas; Bonou, Alexandra; Wangel, Arne

2018-01-01

An expansion of the LCA framework has been going on through the development of ‘social life cycle assessment’—S-LCA. The methodology, still in its infancy, has the goal of assessing social impacts related to a product’s life cycle. This chapter introduces S-LCA framework area and the related...

Assessing Environmental Sustainability of Remediation Technologies in a Life Cycle Perspective is Not So Easy

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Owsianiak, Mikolaj; Lemming, Gitte; Hauschild, Michael Zwicky

2013-01-01

Integrating sustainability into remediation projects has attracted attention from remediation practitioners, and life cycle assessment (LCA) is becoming a popular tool to address the environmental dimension. The total number of studies has reached 31 since the first framework for LCA of site reme...... about the environmental sustainability of remediation technologies.......Integrating sustainability into remediation projects has attracted attention from remediation practitioners, and life cycle assessment (LCA) is becoming a popular tool to address the environmental dimension. The total number of studies has reached 31 since the first framework for LCA of site...

Towards a Life Cycle Based Chemical Alternative Assessment (LCAA)

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jolliet, O.; Huang, L.; Overcash, Michael

2017-01-01

approach combines the following elements: a) The manufacturing phase chemical inventory is based on the environmental genome of industrial products database, ensuring mass and energy balance, b) near-field exposure to consumer products during the use phase is determined based on the mass of chemical......There is a need for an operational quantitative screening-level assessment of alternatives, that is life-cycle based and able to serve both Life cycle Assessment (LCA and chemical alternatives assessment (CAA). This presentation therefore aims to develop and illustrate a new approach called “Life...... Cycle Based Chemical Alternative Assessment (LCAA)” that will quantify exposure and life cycle impacts consistently and efficiently over the main life cycle stages. The new LCAA approach is illustrated though a proof-of-concept case study of alternative plasticizers in vinyl flooring. The proposed LCAA...

Addressing the effect of social life cycle assessments

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jørgensen, Andreas; Dreyer, Louise Camilla; Wangel, Arne

2012-01-01

the validity of these hypotheses. Results: Three in some cases potentially overlapping SLCA approaches are presented, assumed to create a beneficial effect in the life cycle in different ways. However, empirical and theoretical findings show that the beneficial effects proposed to arise from the use of each......Purpose: In the recently published ‘Guidelines for social life cycle assessment of products’, it is stated that the ultimate objective of developing the social life cycle assessment (SLCA) is to promote improvements of social conditions for the stakeholders in the life cycle. This article addresses...... how the SLCA should be developed so that its use promotes these improvements. Methods: Hypotheses of how the use of SLCA can promote improvement of social conditions in the life cycle are formulated, after which theories and empirical findings from relevant fields of research are used to address...

A framework for social life cycle impact assessment

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Dreyer, Louise Camilla; Hauschild, Michael Zwicky; Schierbeck, Jens

2006-01-01

Goal, Scope and Background. To enhance the use of life cycle assessment (LCA) as a tool in business decision-making, a methodology for Social life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) is being developed. Social LCA aims at facilitating companies to conduct business in a socially responsible manner...... by providing information about the potential social impacts on people caused by the activities in the life cycle of their product. The development of the methodology has been guided by a business perspective accepting that companies, on the one hand, have responsibility for the people affected...... in the life cycle rather than to the individual industrial processes, as is the case in Environmental LCA. Inventory analysis is therefore focused on the conduct of the companies engaged in the life cycle. A consequence of this view is that a key must be determined for relating the social profiles...

A Framework for BIM-enabled Life-cycle Information Management of Construction Project

OpenAIRE

Xu, n; Ma, Ling; Ding, Lieyun

2014-01-01

BIM has been widely used in project management, but on the whole the applications have been scattered and the BIM models have not been deployed throughout the whole project life-cycle. Each participant builds their own BIM, so there is a major problem in how to integrate these dynamic and fragmented data together. In order to solve this problem, this paper focuses on BIM- based life-cycle information management and builds a framework for BIM-enabled life-cycle information management. To organ...

Methodologies for Social Life Cycle Assessment

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jørgensen, Andreas; Le Bocq, Agathe; Nazakina, Liudmila

2008-01-01

Goal, Scope and Background. In recent years several different approaches towards Social Life Cycle Assessment (SLCA) have been developed. The purpose of this review is to compare these approaches in order to highlight methodological differences and general shortcomings. SLCA has several similarit......Goal, Scope and Background. In recent years several different approaches towards Social Life Cycle Assessment (SLCA) have been developed. The purpose of this review is to compare these approaches in order to highlight methodological differences and general shortcomings. SLCA has several...... similarities with other social assessment tools, but in order to limit the review, only claims to address social impacts from an LCA-like framework is considered. Main Features. The review is to a large extent based on conference proceedings and reports of which some are not easily accessible, since very...... stage in the product life cycle. Another very important difference among the proposals is their position towards the use of generic data. Several of the proposals argue that social impacts are connected to the conduct of the company leading to the conclusion that each individual company in the product...

Life cycle and nano-products: end-of-life assessment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Asmatulu, Eylem; Twomey, Janet; Overcash, Michael

2012-01-01

Understanding environmental impacts of nanomaterials necessitates analyzing the life cycle profile. The initial emphasis of nanomaterial life cycle studies has been on the environmental and health effects of nanoproducts during the production and usage stages. Analyzing the end-of-life (eol) stage of nanomaterials is also critical because significant impacts or benefits for the environment may arise at that particular stage. In this article, the Woodrow Wilson Center’s Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies (PEN) Consumer Products Inventory (CPI) model was used, which contains a relatively large and complete nanoproduct list (1,014) as of 2010. The consumer products have wide range of applications, such as clothing, sports goods, personal care products, medicine, as well as contributing to faster cars and planes, more powerful computers and satellites, better micro and nanochips, and long-lasting batteries. In order to understand the eol cycle concept, we allocated 1,014 nanoproducts into the nine end-of-life categories (e.g., recyclability, ingestion, absorption by skin/public sewer, public sewer, burning/landfill, landfill, air release, air release/public sewer, and other) based on probable final destinations of the nanoproducts. This article highlights the results of this preliminary assessment of end-of-life stage of nanoproducts. The largest potential eol fate was found to be recyclability, however little literature appears to have evolved around nanoproduct recycling. At lower frequency is dermal and ingestion human uptake and then landfill. Release to water and air are much lower potential eol fates for current nanoproducts. In addition, an analysis of nano-product categories with the largest number of products listed indicated that clothes, followed by dermal-related products and then sports equipment were the most represented in the PEN CPI (http

Life cycle and nano-products: end-of-life assessment

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Asmatulu, Eylem; Twomey, Janet; Overcash, Michael, E-mail: mrovercash@earthlink.net [Wichita State University, Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering (United States)

2012-03-15

Understanding environmental impacts of nanomaterials necessitates analyzing the life cycle profile. The initial emphasis of nanomaterial life cycle studies has been on the environmental and health effects of nanoproducts during the production and usage stages. Analyzing the end-of-life (eol) stage of nanomaterials is also critical because significant impacts or benefits for the environment may arise at that particular stage. In this article, the Woodrow Wilson Center's Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies (PEN) Consumer Products Inventory (CPI) model was used, which contains a relatively large and complete nanoproduct list (1,014) as of 2010. The consumer products have wide range of applications, such as clothing, sports goods, personal care products, medicine, as well as contributing to faster cars and planes, more powerful computers and satellites, better micro and nanochips, and long-lasting batteries. In order to understand the eol cycle concept, we allocated 1,014 nanoproducts into the nine end-of-life categories (e.g., recyclability, ingestion, absorption by skin/public sewer, public sewer, burning/landfill, landfill, air release, air release/public sewer, and other) based on probable final destinations of the nanoproducts. This article highlights the results of this preliminary assessment of end-of-life stage of nanoproducts. The largest potential eol fate was found to be recyclability, however little literature appears to have evolved around nanoproduct recycling. At lower frequency is dermal and ingestion human uptake and then landfill. Release to water and air are much lower potential eol fates for current nanoproducts. In addition, an analysis of nano-product categories with the largest number of products listed indicated that clothes, followed by dermal-related products and then sports equipment were the most represented in the PEN CPI (http

Proposing a Conceptual Framework to Utilize Storytelling Mechanism into Project Management Life Cycle

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

mahdi shami zanjani

2013-10-01

Full Text Available It is rather difficult to exploit knowledge in project organizations due to their unique characteristics and temporal behavior of activities. Therefore, development of knowledge management capability among projects is accounted for an important source to gain competitive advantage. This paper tries to provide a conceptual framework in order to introduce applications of storytelling as an effective and inexpensive mechanism for projects knowledge management. At first, a conceptual framework was designed including 58 story applications in activities of project life cycle by studying and analyzing the related literature. Then, validation of this conceptual framework was investigated and verified by relevant experts. Finally, application of storytelling was assessed within the projects of Sanam industrial and commercial company, using the framework designed. Analysis of data demonstrates that out of 58 applications introduced, this company benefit from just 28 applications. Research method in this section was survey. According to the available information, this paper is one of the first researches which have adopted to introduce applications of storytelling in the life cycle of project management by providing a conceptual framework.

Influence of service life on Life Cycle Assessments

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van Nunen, H.; Hendriks, N.A.; Erkelens, P.A.

2003-01-01

Environmental assessment is part of present decision making. But, because of difficulties the assessments are not as profound as could be. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a cradle-to-grave approach and consequently a time factor is embedded. Until now this time factor is fixed and calculations are

Application of Life Cycle Assessment on Electronic Waste Management: A Review

Science.gov (United States)

Xue, Mianqiang; Xu, Zhenming

2017-04-01

Electronic waste is a rich source of both valuable materials and toxic substances. Management of electronic waste is one of the biggest challenges of current worldwide concern. As an effective and prevailing environmental management tool, life cycle assessment can evaluate the environmental performance of electronic waste management activities. Quite a few scientific literatures reporting life cycle assessment of electronic waste management with significant outcomes have been recently published. This paper reviewed the trends, characteristics, research gaps, and challenges of these studies providing detailed information for practitioners involved in electronic waste management. The results showed that life cycle assessment studies were most carried out in Europe, followed by Asia and North America. The research subject of the studies mainly includes monitors, waste printed circuit boards, mobile phones, computers, printers, batteries, toys, dishwashers, and light-emitting diodes. CML was the most widely used life cycle impact assessment method in life cycle assessment studies on electronic waste management, followed by EI99. Furthermore, 40% of the reviewed studies combined with other environmental tools, including life cycle cost, material flow analysis, multi-criteria decision analysis, emergy analysis, and hazard assessment which came to more comprehensive conclusions from different aspects. The research gaps and challenges including uneven distribution of life cycle assessment studies, life cycle impact assessment methods selection, comparison of the results, and uncertainty of the life cycle assessment studies were examined. Although life cycle assessment of electronic waste management facing challenges, their results will play more and more important role in electronic waste management practices.

Life cycle assessment of hydrogen energy pattern

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Aissani, Lynda; Bourgois, Jacques; Rousseaux, Patrick; Jabouille, Florent; Loget, Sebastien; Perier Camby, Laurent; Sessiecq, Philippe

2007-01-01

In the last decades transportation sector is a priority for environmental research. Indeed, it is the most impacting sector because it involves greenhouse emissions and fossil resources exhaustion. The Group of 'Ecole des Mines' (GEM), in France, carries out studies concerning clean and renewable energies for this sector with the 'H2-PAC' project. The GEM with four teams performs studies concerning energy systems for transportation sector and more particularly the hydrogen system. The four teams of the GEM work each one on a process of this system. More precisely, the team of Albi studies biomass gasification in order to produce synthesis gas. The team of Nantes studies purification of this gas to obtain pure hydrogen and hydrogen storage on activated carbon. The team of Paris studies fuel cell use and especially Polymer Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell. Finally, the team of St Etienne evaluates this system along its life cycle from an environmental point of view. This paper presents this environmental evaluation witch is realized according to Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology. (authors)

Interconnection of the Degree of Risk and Life Cycle of the “Green Construction” Investment Projects

OpenAIRE

Lepehova Natalia; Shoshinov Vitaly

2017-01-01

This article analyses interconnection of the degree of risk and the life cycle of the “green building” investment projects, which is structured according to the life cycle. Main stages of the implementation of investment and construction project were considered, interconnection of the project life cycle and the level of project risk were presented in the form of graphical model, proposed a mathematical model of the risk calculation at different stages of the project life cycle, which is a fun...

Life Cycle Assessment of a Wave Energy Converter

OpenAIRE

Gastelum Zepeda, Leonardo

2017-01-01

Renewable energies had accomplish to become part of a new era in the energy development area, making people able to stop relying on fossil fuels. Nevertheless the environmental impacts of these new energy sources also require to be quantified in order to review how many benefits these new technologies have for the environment. In this project the use of a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) will be implemented in order to quantify the environmental impact of wave energy, an LCA is a technique for ass...

LIFE CYCLE DESIGN OF AMORPHOUS SILICON PHOTOVOLTAIC MODULES

Science.gov (United States)

The life cycle design framework was applied to photovoltaic module design. The primary objective of this project was to develop and evaluate design metrics for assessing and guiding the Improvement of PV product systems. Two metrics were used to assess life cycle energy perform...

Life Cycle Thinking in Impact Assessment

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bidstrup, Morten

2015-01-01

It has been advocated that life cycle thinking (LCT) should be applied in impact assessment (IA) to a greater extent, since some development proposals pose a risk of significant impacts throughout the interconnected activities of product systems. Multiple authors have proposed the usage of life...

Software Safety Life cycle and Method of POSAFE-Q System

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lee, Jang-Soo; Kwon, Kee-Choon

2006-01-01

This paper describes the relationship between the overall safety life cycle and the software safety life cycle during the development of the software based safety systems of Nuclear Power Plants. This includes the design and evaluation activities of components as well as the system. The paper also compares the safety life cycle and planning activities defined in IEC 61508 with those in IEC 60880, IEEE 7-4.3.2, and IEEE 1228. Using the KNICS project as an example, software safety life cycle and safety analysis methods applied to the POSAFE-Q are demonstrated. KNICS software safety life cycle is described by comparing to the software development, testing, and safety analysis process with international standards. The safety assessment of the software for POSAFE-Q is a joint Korean German project. The assessment methods applied in the project and the experiences gained from this project are presented

A Hybrid Life-Cycle Assessment of Nonrenewable Energy and Greenhouse-Gas Emissions of a Village-Level Biomass Gasification Project in China

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mingyue Pang

2012-07-01

Full Text Available Small-scale bio-energy projects have been launched in rural areas of China and are considered as alternatives to fossil-fuel energy. However, energetic and environmental evaluation of these projects has rarely been carried out, though it is necessary for their long-term development. A village-level biomass gasification project provides an example. A hybrid life-cycle assessment (LCA of its total nonrenewable energy (NE cost and associated greenhouse gas (GHG emissions is presented in this paper. The results show that the total energy cost for one joule of biomass gas output from the project is 2.93 J, of which 0.89 J is from nonrenewable energy, and the related GHG emission cost is 1.17 × 10⁻⁴ g CO₂-eq over its designed life cycle of 20 years. To provide equivalent effective calorific value for cooking work, the utilization of one joule of biomass gas will lead to more life cycle NE cost by 0.07 J and more GHG emissions by 8.92 × 10⁻⁵ g CO₂-eq compared to natural gas taking into consideration of the difference in combustion efficiency and calorific value. The small-scale bio-energy project has fallen into dilemma, i.e., struggling for survival, and for a more successful future development of village-level gasification projects, much effort is needed to tide over the plight of its development, such as high cost and low efficiency caused by decentralized construction, technical shortcomings and low utilization rate of by-products.

Life Cycle Impact Assessment Research Developments and Needs

Science.gov (United States)

Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA) developments are explained along with key publications which record discussions which comprised ISO 14042 and SETAC document development, UNEP SETAC Life Cycle Initiative research, and research from public and private research institutions. It ...

Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment of Sediment Remediation at the London Olympic Park

Science.gov (United States)

Hou, D.; Al-Tabbaa, A.

2013-12-01

In recent years, there is an emerging 'green and sustainable remediation' (GSR) movement. It is drawing increasing attention from both the government and the industry, because this GSR movement is promising in accelerating process in addressing the contaminated land issue, by overcoming regulatory barriers, encouraging technological innovation, and balancing life cycle environmental stewardship with economic vitality and social well-being. Life cycle assessment (LCA) has been increasingly used by both researchers and industrial practitioners in an initiative to make environmental remediation greener and more sustainable. Life cycle sustainability assessment (LCSA), aiming at expanding the traditional LCA model in both breadth and depth (e.g. to incorporate both environmental and social-economic sustainability), is an important research direction in the existing LCA research field. The present study intends to develop a LCSA method based on a hybrid LCA model and economic input-output (EIO) data. The LCSA method is applied to a contaminated sediment remediation project conducted at the London Olympic Park site.

Life cycle assessment of renewable energy sources

CERN Document Server

Singh, Anoop; Olsen, Stig Irving

2013-01-01

Governments are setting challenging targets to increase the production of energy and transport fuel from sustainable sources. The emphasis is increasingly on renewable sources including wind, solar, geothermal, biomass based biofuel, photovoltaics or energy recovery from waste. What are the environmental consequences of adopting these other sources? How do these various sources compare to each other? Life Cycle Assessment of Renewable Energy Sources tries to answer these questions based on the universally adopted method of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). This book introduces the concept and impor

A life cycle cost economics model for projects with uniformly varying operating costs. [management planning

Science.gov (United States)

Remer, D. S.

1977-01-01

A mathematical model is developed for calculating the life cycle costs for a project where the operating costs increase or decrease in a linear manner with time. The life cycle cost is shown to be a function of the investment costs, initial operating costs, operating cost gradient, project life time, interest rate for capital and salvage value. The results show that the life cycle cost for a project can be grossly underestimated (or overestimated) if the operating costs increase (or decrease) uniformly over time rather than being constant as is often assumed in project economic evaluations. The following range of variables is examined: (1) project life from 2 to 30 years; (2) interest rate from 0 to 15 percent per year; and (3) operating cost gradient from 5 to 90 percent of the initial operating costs. A numerical example plus tables and graphs is given to help calculate project life cycle costs over a wide range of variables.

Life cycle assessment (LCA) and exergetic life cycle assessment (ELCA) of the production of biodiesel from used cooking oil (UCO)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Talens Peiro, L.; Lombardi, L.; Villalba Mendez, G.; Gabarrell i Durany, X.

2010-01-01

The paper assesses the life cycle of biodiesel from used cooking oil (UCO). Such life cycle involves 4 stages: 1) collection, 2) pre-treatment, 3) delivery and 4) transesterification of UCO. Generally, UCO is collected from restaurants, food industries and recycling centres by authorised companies. Then, UCO is pre-treated to remove solid particles and water to increase its quality. After that, it is charged in cistern trucks and delivered to the biodiesel facility to be then transesterified with methanol to biodiesel. The production of 1 ton of biodiesel is evaluated by a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) to assess the environmental impact and by an Exergetic Life Cycle Assessment (ELCA) to account for the exergy input to the system. A detailed list of material and energy inputs is done using data from local companies and completed using Ecoinvent 1.2 database. The results show that the transesterification stage causes 68% of the total environmental impact. The major exergy inputs are uranium and natural gas. If targets set by the Spanish Renewable Energy Plan are achieved, the exergy input for producing biodiesel would be reduced by 8% in the present system and consequently environmental impacts and exergy input reduced up to 36% in 2010.

Mapping of information and identification of construction waste at project life cycle

Science.gov (United States)

Wibowo, Mochamad Agung; Handayani, Naniek Utami; Nurdiana, Asri; Sholeh, Moh Nur; Pamungkas, Gita Silvia

2018-03-01

The development of construction project towards green construction is needed in order to improve the efficiency of construction projects. One that needs to be minimized is construction waste. Construction waste is waste generated from construction project activities, both solid waste and non solid waste. More specifically, the waste happens at every phase of the project life cycle. Project life cycle are the stage of idea, design, construction, and operation/maintenance. Each phase is managed by different stakeholders. Therefore it requires special handling from the involved stakeholders. The objective of the study is to map the information and identify the waste at each phase of the project life cycle. The purpose of mapping is to figure out the process of information and product flow and with its timeline. This mapping used Value Stream Mapping (VSM). Identification of waste was done by distributing questionnaire to respondents to know the waste according to owner, consultant planner, contractor, and supervisory consultant. The result of the study is the mapping of information flow and product flow at the phases of idea, design, construction, and operation/ maintenance.

Implementing Life Cycle Assessment in Product development

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bhander, Gurbakhash Singh

2003-01-01

The overall aim of the paper is to provide an understanding of the environmental issues involved in the early stages of product development and the capacity of life cycle assessment techniques to address these issues. The paper aims to outline the problems for the designer in evaluating the envir......The overall aim of the paper is to provide an understanding of the environmental issues involved in the early stages of product development and the capacity of life cycle assessment techniques to address these issues. The paper aims to outline the problems for the designer in evaluating......, and of the opportunities for introducing environmental criteria in the design process through meeting the information requirements of the designer on the different life cycle stages, producing an in-depth understanding of the attitudes of practitioners among product developers to the subject area, and an understanding...... of possible future directions for product development. An Environmentally Conscious Design method is introduced and trade-offs are presented between design degrees of freedom and environmental solutions. Life cycle design frameworks and strategies are addressed. The paper collects experiences and ideas around...

LIFE CYCLE ASSESSMENT FOR PC BLEND 2 AIRCRAFT RADOME DEPAINTER

Science.gov (United States)

This report describes the life cycle assessment on a potential replacement solvent blend for aircraft radome depainting at the Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center at Tinker Air Force Base. The life cycle assessment is composed of three separate but interrelated components: life cy...

PROJECT GOVERNANCE – PHASES AND LIFE CYCLE

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Robbert Titus DEENEN

2007-01-01

Full Text Available When talking about projects, the barrier is clear: successful and failed. Some fail due to different reasons, but lack of good project and risk management played a large part. Others succeed largely because of the rigorous and disciplined application of good project practices. But both groups illustrate many points that underline and demonstrate important concepts applicable to current projects. Systematic application of good methods leads to successful outcomes in projects of all types. All projects are fundamentally dependent on people, and human beings are not very different today than we were hundreds, or even thousands, of years ago. This paper uncovers main elements in projects area such as the concepts and governance of projects, with an underline of the main characteristics and the projects phases and life cycle that erase the uncertainty that joins all the projects built at any time.

Comparative Human Health Impact Assessment of Engineered Nanomaterials in the Framework of Life Cycle Assessment.

Science.gov (United States)

Fransman, Wouter; Buist, Harrie; Kuijpers, Eelco; Walser, Tobias; Meyer, David; Zondervan-van den Beuken, Esther; Westerhout, Joost; Klein Entink, Rinke H; Brouwer, Derk H

2017-07-01

For safe innovation, knowledge on potential human health impacts is essential. Ideally, these impacts are considered within a larger life-cycle-based context to support sustainable development of new applications and products. A methodological framework that accounts for human health impacts caused by inhalation of engineered nanomaterials (ENMs) in an indoor air environment has been previously developed. The objectives of this study are as follows: (i) evaluate the feasibility of applying the CF framework for NP exposure in the workplace based on currently available data; and (ii) supplement any resulting knowledge gaps with methods and data from the life cycle approach and human risk assessment (LICARA) project to develop a modified case-specific version of the framework that will enable near-term inclusion of NP human health impacts in life cycle assessment (LCA) using a case study involving nanoscale titanium dioxide (nanoTiO 2 ). The intent is to enhance typical LCA with elements of regulatory risk assessment, including its more detailed measure of uncertainty. The proof-of-principle demonstration of the framework highlighted the lack of available data for both the workplace emissions and human health effects of ENMs that is needed to calculate generalizable characterization factors using common human health impact assessment practices in LCA. The alternative approach of using intake fractions derived from workplace air concentration measurements and effect factors based on best-available toxicity data supported the current case-by-case approach for assessing the human health life cycle impacts of ENMs. Ultimately, the proposed framework and calculations demonstrate the potential utility of integrating elements of risk assessment with LCA for ENMs once the data are available. © 2016 Society for Risk Analysis.

Implementing Life Cycle Assessment in systems development

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bhander, Gurbakhash Singh; Hauschild, Michael Zwicky; McAloone, Timothy Charles

2003-01-01

and the rapid changes in markets for many products. The overall aim of the paper is to provide an understanding of the environmental issues involved in the early stages of product development and the capacity of life cycle assessment techniques to address these issues. The paper aims to outline the problems...... for the designer in evaluating the environmental benignity of the product from the outset and to provide the designer with a framework for decision support based on the performance evaluation at different stages of the design process. The overall aim of this paper is to produce an in-depth understanding...... of possibilities which can be introduced in the design stage compared to the other life cycle stages of the product system. The paper collects experiences and ideas around the state-of-the-art in eco-design, from literature and personal experience and further provides eco-design life cycle assessment strategies...

Error Cost Escalation Through the Project Life Cycle

Science.gov (United States)

Stecklein, Jonette M.; Dabney, Jim; Dick, Brandon; Haskins, Bill; Lovell, Randy; Moroney, Gregory

2004-01-01

It is well known that the costs to fix errors increase as the project matures, but how fast do those costs build? A study was performed to determine the relative cost of fixing errors discovered during various phases of a project life cycle. This study used three approaches to determine the relative costs: the bottom-up cost method, the total cost breakdown method, and the top-down hypothetical project method. The approaches and results described in this paper presume development of a hardware/software system having project characteristics similar to those used in the development of a large, complex spacecraft, a military aircraft, or a small communications satellite. The results show the degree to which costs escalate, as errors are discovered and fixed at later and later phases in the project life cycle. If the cost of fixing a requirements error discovered during the requirements phase is defined to be 1 unit, the cost to fix that error if found during the design phase increases to 3 - 8 units; at the manufacturing/build phase, the cost to fix the error is 7 - 16 units; at the integration and test phase, the cost to fix the error becomes 21 - 78 units; and at the operations phase, the cost to fix the requirements error ranged from 29 units to more than 1500 units

Regulation of hydraulic fracturing in South Africa: a project life-cycle ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

This note deals with the 2015 regulations pertaining to hydraulic fracturing in South Africa from a project life-cycle approach. A brief history of the fragmentation of the regulation of environmental and mining related matters is provided, followed by a discussion of the application of the 2015 regulations during the project life ...

Life cycle reliability assessment of new products—A Bayesian model updating approach

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Peng, Weiwen; Huang, Hong-Zhong; Li, Yanfeng; Zuo, Ming J.; Xie, Min

2013-01-01

The rapidly increasing pace and continuously evolving reliability requirements of new products have made life cycle reliability assessment of new products an imperative yet difficult work. While much work has been done to separately estimate reliability of new products in specific stages, a gap exists in carrying out life cycle reliability assessment throughout all life cycle stages. We present a Bayesian model updating approach (BMUA) for life cycle reliability assessment of new products. Novel features of this approach are the development of Bayesian information toolkits by separately including “reliability improvement factor” and “information fusion factor”, which allow the integration of subjective information in a specific life cycle stage and the transition of integrated information between adjacent life cycle stages. They lead to the unique characteristics of the BMUA in which information generated throughout life cycle stages are integrated coherently. To illustrate the approach, an application to the life cycle reliability assessment of a newly developed Gantry Machining Center is shown

Comparative life cycle assessment and life cycle costing of lodging in the Himalaya

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Bhochhibhoya, Silu; Pizzol, Massimo; Achten, Wouter M.J.; Maskey, Ramesh Kumar; Zanetti, Michela; Cavalli, Raffaele

2017-01-01

Purpose: The main aim of the study is to assess the environmental and economic impacts of the lodging sector located in the Himalayan region of Nepal, from a life cycle perspective. The assessment should support decision making in technology and material selection for minimal environmental and

Waste-to-energy: A review of life cycle assessment and its extension methods.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhou, Zhaozhi; Tang, Yuanjun; Chi, Yong; Ni, Mingjiang; Buekens, Alfons

2018-01-01

This article proposes a comprehensive review of evaluation tools based on life cycle thinking, as applied to waste-to-energy. Habitually, life cycle assessment is adopted to assess environmental burdens associated with waste-to-energy initiatives. Based on this framework, several extension methods have been developed to focus on specific aspects: Exergetic life cycle assessment for reducing resource depletion, life cycle costing for evaluating its economic burden, and social life cycle assessment for recording its social impacts. Additionally, the environment-energy-economy model integrates both life cycle assessment and life cycle costing methods and judges simultaneously these three features for sustainable waste-to-energy conversion. Life cycle assessment is sufficiently developed on waste-to-energy with concrete data inventory and sensitivity analysis, although the data and model uncertainty are unavoidable. Compared with life cycle assessment, only a few evaluations are conducted to waste-to-energy techniques by using extension methods and its methodology and application need to be further developed. Finally, this article succinctly summarises some recommendations for further research.

Life cycle assessment of offshore and onshore sited wind farms

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

2004-10-15

This report makes up the final reporting for the project 'Life cycle assessment (LCA) of turbines Analysis of possibilities of product directed environmental optimisation'. The purpose of the project is to carry through a life cycle assessment of an offshore wind farm and an onshore wind farm, respectively, as a basis for assessment of environmental improvement possibilities for wind farms through their life cycles. Likewise, the results are used to elaborate an environmental declaration of contents for power delivered to the grid from both types of wind farms. The project states the environmental impact for electricity produced at Horns Reef offshore wind farm and Tjaereborg onshore wind farm, respectively, as representatives for contemporary Danish offshore wind farms and onshore wind farms, respectively. Tjaereborg onshore wind farm is placed at an utmost favourably location with regard to wind, which means that the production at this wind farm is high compared with other onshore wind farms in Denmark. The high production rate is a factor that is taken into account when assessing the impact on the environment emanating from this wind farm. The results of the environmental life cycle assessments that have been carried out for the two wind farms do not show significant variance. If it is taken into account that Tjaereborg onshore wind farm is placed utmost favourably, the comparison shows that power from an average located onshore wind farm would have a more adverse or corresponding environmental impact as an unfavourably located offshore wind farm. The results show that it is the turbines that causes the largest environmental impact and not to a very high extent the transmission grid. For the turbines, the all-important environmental contribution comes from manufacturing and removal of the turbines, as it is the materials that cause the large environmental strain. The operation of the wind farms gives practically no contribution to the total

The Eye Diagram: A New Perspective on the Project Life Cycle

Science.gov (United States)

Jiang, Bin; Heiser, Daniel R.

2004-01-01

The project life cycle, a well-established concept in project management literature and education, is used to highlight the dynamic requirements placed on a typical project manager. As a project moves through the selection, planning, execution, and termination phases, the project manager and team are faced with different, vying areas of…

Estimating pesticide emissions for life cycle assessment of agricultural products

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hauschild, Michael Zwicky; Røpke, Inge

2004-01-01

As the first country in Europe Denmark almost 2 years ago established an official center for Life Cycle Assessments and life cycle approaches as an element of the national IPP (Integrated Product Policy). The Danish EPA lends financial support to this important initiative, the aim of which is to: 1....... promote the use of Life Cycle Assessment and other product-oriented environmental tools in companies, 2. support companies and other in using environmental assessment of products and services, 3. ensure that the effort in the LCA area is based on a solid and scientific basis, and 4. maintain the well...... evaluation finished in September 2004. Important learnings for all who are engaged in dissemination of life cycle thinking in industry will be presented....

Regulation Of Hydraulic Fracturing In South Africa: A Project Life-Cycle Approach?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Willemien du Plessis

2015-12-01

Full Text Available This note deals with the 2015 regulations pertaining to hydraulic fracturing in South Africa from a project life-cycle approach. A brief history of the fragmentation of the regulation of environmental and mining related matters is provided, followed by a discussion of the application of the 2015 regulations during the project life cycle, ie the pre-commencement phase, the design and authorisation phase, the testing phase, the operational phase and the decommissioning and closure phase.

Life cycle assessment of a wind farm and related externalities

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Schleisner, Liselotte

2000-01-01

This paper concentrates on the assessment of energy and emissions related to the production and manufacture of materials for an offshore wind farm as well as a wind farm on land based on a life cycle analysis (LCA) model. In Denmark a model has been developed for life cycle assessments of different...... materials. The model is able to assess the energy use related to the production, transportation and manufacture of 1 kg of material. The energy use is divided into fuels used in order to estimate the emissions through the life cycle. In the paper the model and the attached assumptions are described......, and the model is demonstrated for two wind farms. The externalities for the wind farms are reported, showing the importance of life cycle assessment for renewable energy technologies. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved....

Life-cycle assessment of Nebraska bridges.

Science.gov (United States)

2013-05-01

Life-cycle cost analysis (LCCA) is a necessary component in bridge management systems (BMSs) for : assessing investment decisions and identifying the most cost-effective improvement alternatives. The : LCCA helps to identify the lowest cost alternati...

Towards a life cycle sustainability assessment: making informed choices on products

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ciroth, Andreas [GreenDeltaTC, Berlin (Germany); Finkbeiner, Matthias; Traverso, Marzia [TU Berlin (Germany); Hildenbrand, Jutta [Chalmers University (United States); Kloepffer, Walter [Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment (Germany); Mazijn, Bernard [Ghent University (Belgium); Prakash, Siddharth [Oeko-Institut (Germany); Sonnemann, Guido; Valdivia, Sonia [UNEP (France); Ugaya, Cassia Maria Lie [Technological Federal University of Parana, ACV (Brazil); Vickery-Niederman, Gina [University of Arkansas (United States)

2011-07-01

In this introduction to the concept of life cycle sustainability assessment (LCSA), we acknowledge the foundations laid by previous works and initiatives. One such initiative has been the ISO 14040 series (Environmental management -- Life cycle assessment -- Principles and framework), which in addition to the ISO 26000: Social Responsibility Guidance Standard, and the contribution of a number of international initiatives (Appendix A) have been essential for the development of this publication. The life cycle of a product involves flows of material, energy and money. Nonetheless, the picture is not complete unless we look also at the production and consumption impacts on all actors along the 'value chain' -- workers, local communities, consumers and society itself. Different life cycle assessment techniques allow individuals and enterprises to assess the impact of their purchasing decisions and production methods along different aspects of this value chain. An (Environmental) life cycle assessment (LCA) looks at potential impacts to the environment as a result of the extraction of resources, transportation, production, use, recycling and discarding of products; life cycle costing (LCC) is used to assess the cost implications of this life cycle; and social life cycle assessment (S-LCA) examines the social consequences. However, in order to get the 'whole picture', it is vital to extend current life cycle thinking to encompass all three pillars of sustainability: (i) environmental, (ii) economic and (iii) social. This means carrying out an assessment based on environmental, economic and social issues -- by conducting an overarching life cycle sustainability assessment (LCSA). This publication shows how all three techniques -- which all share similar methodological frameworks and aims -- can be combined to make the move towards an overarching LCSA possible. Because it is holistic, systemic and rigorous, (environmental) LCA is the preferred technique

Towards a life cycle sustainability assessment: making informed choices on products

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ciroth, Andreas [GreenDeltaTC, Berlin (Germany); Finkbeiner, Matthias; Traverso, Marzia [TU Berlin (Germany); Hildenbrand, Jutta [Chalmers University (United States); Kloepffer, Walter [Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment (Germany); Mazijn, Bernard [Ghent University (Belgium); Prakash, Siddharth [Oeko-Institut (Germany); Sonnemann, Guido; Valdivia, Sonia [UNEP (France); Ugaya, Cassia Maria Lie [Technological Federal University of Parana, ACV (Brazil); Vickery-Niederman, Gina [University of Arkansas (United States)

2011-07-01

In this introduction to the concept of life cycle sustainability assessment (LCSA), we acknowledge the foundations laid by previous works and initiatives. One such initiative has been the ISO 14040 series (Environmental management -- Life cycle assessment -- Principles and framework), which in addition to the ISO 26000: Social Responsibility Guidance Standard, and the contribution of a number of international initiatives (Appendix A) have been essential for the development of this publication. The life cycle of a product involves flows of material, energy and money. Nonetheless, the picture is not complete unless we look also at the production and consumption impacts on all actors along the 'value chain' -- workers, local communities, consumers and society itself. Different life cycle assessment techniques allow individuals and enterprises to assess the impact of their purchasing decisions and production methods along different aspects of this value chain. An (Environmental) life cycle assessment (LCA) looks at potential impacts to the environment as a result of the extraction of resources, transportation, production, use, recycling and discarding of products; life cycle costing (LCC) is used to assess the cost implications of this life cycle; and social life cycle assessment (S-LCA) examines the social consequences. However, in order to get the 'whole picture', it is vital to extend current life cycle thinking to encompass all three pillars of sustainability: (i) environmental, (ii) economic and (iii) social. This means carrying out an assessment based on environmental, economic and social issues -- by conducting an overarching life cycle sustainability assessment (LCSA). This publication shows how all three techniques -- which all share similar methodological frameworks and aims -- can be combined to make the move towards an overarching LCSA possible. Because it is holistic, systemic and rigorous, (environmental) LCA is the preferred technique when it comes to

Scenario Development and Delphi Application in Life Cycle Assessment for Assessing Environmental Impact of New Technology Case Study: Removal of Wind Turbines Project

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Devina Fitrika Dewi

2016-05-01

Full Text Available Certain technology is intended to create eco-efficient products or process or is developed as answer to the recent challenge. This kind of technology consequently can also create another impact therefore it shall be assessed and analyzed.The focus of the study is on assessment method namely Life Cycle Analysis (LCA, Scenario development and Delphi application. The objective is to understand benefits and drawbacks of the combined methodology and observe practicality of its implementation for assessing new technology. The distinctive feature comes from the combination of social and technological foresight (as Delphi application and future studies (as Scenario development which are applied in the environmental assessment of a product (by Life Cycle Analysis.The utilization of LCA-Scenario-Delphi case study as an explanatory example is presented in the Removal Wind Turbines Project by the Danish Energy Agency. The wind turbine is considered new technology with some of it phases are yet to occur, for example: removal of turbines after phase out stage. Technology Assessment by LCA-Scenario-Delphi is complicated procedure, but necessary to validate the results. The drawbacks of this procedure are extensive time it consumes and the dependency on public participation and/or expert willingness to participate. Nonetheless, its advantages are due to its interactive feature; integration of knowledge from different areas of expertise and its assessment’s characteristic which focuses on process.

Techno-Economics & Life Cycle Assessment (Presentation)

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Dutta, A.; Davis, R.

2011-12-01

This presentation provides an overview of the techno-economic analysis (TEA) and life cycle assessment (LCA) capabilities at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and describes the value of working with NREL on TEA and LCA.

The value of the exergetic life cycle assessment besides the LCA

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Cornelissen, Rene; Hirs, Gerard

2002-01-01

In this paper the value of the exergetic life cycle assessment (ELCA) has been analysed. The ELCA uses the framework of the life cycle assessment (LCA) and can be seen as the exergy analysis of a complete life cycle. The value of the ELCA besides the LCA has been discussed. It is shown that the ELCA

Comparative life cycle assessment of biodiesel and fossil diesel fuel

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ceuterick, D.; Nocker, L. De; Spirinckx, C.

1999-01-01

Biofuels offer clear advantages in terms of greenhouse gas emissions, but do they perform better when we look at all the environmental impacts from a life cycle perspective. In the context of a demonstration project at the Flemish Institute for Technology Research (VITO) on the use of rapeseed methyl ester (RME) or biodiesel as automotive fuel, a life cycle assessment (LCA) of biodiesel and diesel was made. The primary concern was the question as to whether or not the biodiesel chain was comparable to the conventional diesel chain, from an environmental point of view, taking into account all stages of the life cycle of the two products. Additionally, environmental damage costs were calculated, using an impact pathway analysis. This paper presents the results of the two methods for evaluation of environmental impacts of RME and conventional diesel. Both methods are complementary and share the conclusion that although biodiesel has much lower greenhouse gas emissions, it still has significant impacts on other impact categories. The external costs of biodiesel are a bit lower compared to fossil diesel. For both fuels, external costs are significantly higher than the private production cost. (Author)

Life Cycle Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Solar Photovoltaics (Fact Sheet)

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

2012-11-01

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) recently led the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) Harmonization Project, a study that helps to clarify inconsistent and conflicting life cycle GHG emission estimates in the published literature and provide more precise estimates of life cycle GHG emissions from PV systems.

Conceptual Framework To Extend Life Cycle Assessment ...

Science.gov (United States)

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a decision-making tool that accounts for multiple impacts across the life cycle of a product or service. This paper presents a conceptual framework to integrate human health impact assessment with risk screening approaches to extend LCA to include near-field chemical sources (e.g., those originating from consumer products and building materials) that have traditionally been excluded from LCA. A new generation of rapid human exposure modeling and high-throughput toxicity testing is transforming chemical risk prioritization and provides an opportunity for integration of screening-level risk assessment (RA) with LCA. The combined LCA and RA approach considers environmental impacts of products alongside risks to human health, which is consistent with regulatory frameworks addressing RA within a sustainability mindset. A case study is presented to juxtapose LCA and risk screening approaches for a chemical used in a consumer product. The case study demonstrates how these new risk screening tools can be used to inform toxicity impact estimates in LCA and highlights needs for future research. The framework provides a basis for developing tools and methods to support decision making on the use of chemicals in products. This paper presents a conceptual framework for including near-field exposures into Life Cycle Assessment using advanced human exposure modeling and high-throughput tools

Life Cycle Management for an Investment Project in Cluj-Salaj Area, Romania

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Vasile Iuliu CIOMOŞ

2011-02-01

Full Text Available The Project Life Cycle refers to a logical sequence of activities to accomplish the project’s goals or objectives. Regardless of scope or complexity, any project goes through a series of stages during its life. Authors’ experience in preparing and implementing investment projects in the water sector has led to several conclusions: there is first an identification phase, in which the outputs and critical success factors are defined, followed by a planning phase, characterized by breaking down the project into smaller tasks, an execution phase, in which the project plan is executed, and lastly a completion phase, that marks the closure and exit of the project. Investment project activities must be grouped into phases because by doing so, the project management and the core team can efficiently plan and organize resources for each activity, and also objectively measure achievement of the goals. This paper introduces several issues related to the Project Cycle Management for a large local infrastructure investment project in the Cluj- Sălaj area, Romania. Successfully managing the project cycle and making timely decisions at every stage (identification, planning, execution and sustainability require the Project Management Unit from the Cluj-Sălaj Water Company to constantly understand and adapt to strategic considerations, both external and internal.

Life cycle assessment of electronic waste treatment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hong, Jinglan; Shi, Wenxiao; Wang, Yutao; Chen, Wei; Li, Xiangzhi

2015-01-01

Highlights: • Life cycle assessment of electronic waste recycling is quantified. • Key factors for reducing the overall environmental impact are indentified. • End-life disposal processes provide significant environmental benefits. • Efficiently reduce the improper disposal amount of e-waste is highly needed. • E-waste incineration can generate significant environmental burden. - Abstract: Life cycle assessment was conducted to estimate the environmental impact of electronic waste (e-waste) treatment. E-waste recycling with an end-life disposal scenario is environmentally beneficial because of the low environmental burden generated from human toxicity, terrestrial ecotoxicity, freshwater ecotoxicity, and marine ecotoxicity categories. Landfill and incineration technologies have a lower and higher environmental burden than the e-waste recycling with an end-life disposal scenario, respectively. The key factors in reducing the overall environmental impact of e-waste recycling are optimizing energy consumption efficiency, reducing wastewater and solid waste effluent, increasing proper e-waste treatment amount, avoiding e-waste disposal to landfill and incineration sites, and clearly defining the duties of all stakeholders (e.g., manufacturers, retailers, recycling companies, and consumers)

Life cycle assessment of electronic waste treatment

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hong, Jinglan, E-mail: hongjing@sdu.edu.cn [Shandong Provincial Key Laboratory of Water Pollution Control and Resource Reuse, School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Shandong University, Jinan 250100 (China); Shandong University Climate Change and Health Center, Public Health School, Shandong University, Jinan 250012 (China); Shi, Wenxiao [Shandong Provincial Key Laboratory of Water Pollution Control and Resource Reuse, School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Shandong University, Jinan 250100 (China); Wang, Yutao [School of Life Science, Shandong University, Shanda South Road 27, Jinan 250100 (China); Chen, Wei [Shandong Provincial Key Laboratory of Water Pollution Control and Resource Reuse, School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Shandong University, Jinan 250100 (China); Li, Xiangzhi, E-mail: xiangzhi@sdu.edu.cn [School of Medicine, Shandong University, Jinan 250012 (China)

2015-04-15

Highlights: • Life cycle assessment of electronic waste recycling is quantified. • Key factors for reducing the overall environmental impact are indentified. • End-life disposal processes provide significant environmental benefits. • Efficiently reduce the improper disposal amount of e-waste is highly needed. • E-waste incineration can generate significant environmental burden. - Abstract: Life cycle assessment was conducted to estimate the environmental impact of electronic waste (e-waste) treatment. E-waste recycling with an end-life disposal scenario is environmentally beneficial because of the low environmental burden generated from human toxicity, terrestrial ecotoxicity, freshwater ecotoxicity, and marine ecotoxicity categories. Landfill and incineration technologies have a lower and higher environmental burden than the e-waste recycling with an end-life disposal scenario, respectively. The key factors in reducing the overall environmental impact of e-waste recycling are optimizing energy consumption efficiency, reducing wastewater and solid waste effluent, increasing proper e-waste treatment amount, avoiding e-waste disposal to landfill and incineration sites, and clearly defining the duties of all stakeholders (e.g., manufacturers, retailers, recycling companies, and consumers)

Comparative life cycle assessment (LCA) of biodiesel and fossil diesel fuel

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Spirinckx, C.; Xeuterick, D.

1997-01-01

Complementary to VlTO's demonstration project on the use of biodiesel as engine fuel (including on the road emission measurements) in Flanders, Belgium, a comparative life cycle assessment (LCA) has been carried out for rapeseed methyl ester (RME) and fossil diesel fuel. The primary concern of this study is the question as to whether or not the production of biodiesel is comparable to the production of fossil diesel fuel from an environmental point of view, taking into account all stages of the life cycle of these two products. The study covers: (1) a description of the LCA methodology used; (2) a definition of the goal and scope of the study: (3) an inventory of the consumption of energy and materials and the discharges to the environment, from the cradle to the grave, for both alternative fuels: (4) a comparative impact assessment; and (5) the interpretation of the results. The results of this comparative LCA can be used in the final decision making process next to the results of a social and economical assessment. 6 refs

Life cycle assessment of mobile phone housing.

Science.gov (United States)

Yang, Jian-xin; Wang, Ru-song; Fu, Hao; Liu, Jing-ru

2004-01-01

The life cycle assessment of the mobile phone housing in Motorola(China) Electronics Ltd. was carried out, in which materials flows and environmental emissions based on a basic production scheme were analyzed and assessed. In the manufacturing stage, such primary processes as polycarbonate molding and surface painting are included, whereas different surface finishing technologies like normal painting, electroplate, IMD and VDM etc. were assessed. The results showed that housing decoration plays a significant role within the housing life cycle. The most significant environmental impact from housing production is the photochemical ozone formation potential. Environmental impacts of different decoration techniques varied widely, for example, the electroplating technique is more environmentally friendly than VDM. VDM consumes much more energy and raw material. In addition, the results of two alternative scenarios of dematerialization showed that material flow analysis and assessment is very important and valuable in selecting an environmentally friendly process.

Electric vehicle life cycle cost analysis : final research project report.

Science.gov (United States)

2017-02-01

This project compared total life cycle costs of battery electric vehicles (BEV), plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV), hybrid electric vehicles (HEV), and vehicles with internal combustion engines (ICE). The analysis considered capital and operati...

Life cycle assessment of biomass-to-liquid fuels - Final report

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Jungbluth, N.; Buesser, S.; Frischknecht, R.; Tuchschmid, M.

2008-02-15

This study elaborates a life cycle assessment of using of BTL-fuels (biomass-to-liquid). This type of fuel is produced in synthesis process from e.g. wood, straw or other biomass. The life cycle inventory data of the fuel provision with different types of conversion concepts are based on the detailed life cycle assessment compiled and published within a European research project. The inventory of the fuel use emissions is based on information published by automobile manufacturers on reductions due to the use of BTL-fuels. Passenger cars fulfilling the EURO3 emission standards are the basis for the comparison. The life cycle inventories of the use of BTL-fuels for driving in passenger cars are investigated from cradle to grave. The full life cycle is investigated with the transportation of one person over one kilometre (pkm) as a functional unit. This includes all stages of the life cycle of a fuel (biomass and fuel production, distribution, combustion) and the necessary infrastructure (e.g. tractors, conversion plant, cars and streets). The use of biofuels is mainly promoted for the reason of reducing the climate change impact and the use of scarce non-renewable resources e.g. crude oil. The possible implementation of BTL-fuel production processes would potentially help to achieve this goal. The emissions of greenhouse gases due to transport services could be reduced by 28% to 69% with the BTL-processes using straw, forest wood or short-rotation wood as a biomass input. The reduction potential concerning non-renewable energy resources varies between 37% und 61%. A previous study showed that many biofuels cause higher environmental impacts than fossil fuels if several types of ecological problems are considered. The study uses two single score impact assessment methods for the evaluation of the overall environmental impacts, namely the Eco-indicator 99 (H,A) and the Swiss ecological scarcity 2006 method. The transportation with the best BTL-fuel from short

Assessing environmental impacts in a life cycle perspective

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hauschild, Michael Zwicky

2005-01-01

is focused on the product system which comprises all the processes which the product and its components meet throughout their lives- from the extraction of raw materials via manufacture, use and waste management to final disposal, or in short from the cradle to the grave (see Figure 1). The focus......What are the environmental impacts from an armchairor a cellular phone or a steak, if you take into account all the activities needed to produce, maintain, use or consume and eventually dispose of it? Life cycle impact assessment is the part of life cycle assessment (LCA) where the inventory...... of material flows in the life cycle of a product are translated into environmental impacts and consumption of resources, and questions like these are given an answer. The environmental impacts may range from very local (e.g. land use) to global (like climate change). As an environmental analysis tool, LCA...

Life Cycle Assessment of Slurry Management Technologies

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Wesnæs, Marianne; Wenzel, Henrik; Petersen, Bjørn Molt

This report contains the results of Life Cycle Assessments of two slurry management technologies - acidification and decentred incineration. The LCA foundation can be used by the contributing companies for evaluating the environmental sustainability of a specific technology from a holistic Life...... Cycle perspective. Through this the companies can evaluate the environmental benefits and disadvantages of introducing a specific technology for slurry management. From a societal perspective the results can contribute to a clarification of which slurry management technologies (or combination...... of technologies) having the largest potential for reducing the overall environmental impacts....

[Life cycle assessment of the infrastructure for hydrogen sources of fuel cell vehicles].

Science.gov (United States)

Feng, Wen; Wang, Shujuan; Ni, Weidou; Chen, Changhe

2003-05-01

In order to promote the application of life cycle assessment and provide references for China to make the project of infrastructure for hydrogen sources of fuel cell vehicles in the near future, 10 feasible plans of infrastructure for hydrogen sources of fuel cell vehicles were designed according to the current technologies of producing, storing and transporting hydrogen. Then life cycle assessment was used as a tool to evaluate the environmental performances of the 10 plans. The standard indexes of classified environmental impacts of every plan were gotten and sensitivity analysis for several parameters were carried out. The results showed that the best plan was that hydrogen will be produced by natural gas steam reforming in central factory, then transported to refuelling stations through pipelines, and filled to fuel cell vehicles using hydrogen gas at last.

Life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) using the ecological scarcity ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

After it is done, the inventory will be interpreted to the environmental impacts in life cycle impact assessment (LCIA). Two LCIA methods identified were “midpoint and endpoint” approaches. The ecological scarcity (ecopoints) is an LCIA method using “midpoint” approach. From the analysis to both life cycle stages, analysis ...

Sensitivity analysis in life cycle assessment

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Groen, E.A.; Heijungs, R.; Bokkers, E.A.M.; Boer, de I.J.M.

2014-01-01

Life cycle assessments require many input parameters and many of these parameters are uncertain; therefore, a sensitivity analysis is an essential part of the final interpretation. The aim of this study is to compare seven sensitivity methods applied to three types of case stud-ies. Two

Social Life Cycle Assessment Revisited

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ruqun Wu

2014-07-01

Full Text Available To promote the development of Social Life Cycle Assessment (SLCA, we conducted a comprehensive review of recently developed frameworks, methods, and characterization models for impact assessment for future method developers and SLCA practitioners. Two previous reviews served as our foundations for this review. We updated the review by including a comprehensive list of recently-developed SLCA frameworks, methods and characterization models. While a brief discussion from goal, data, and indicator perspectives is provided in Sections 2 to 4 for different frameworks/methods, the focus of this review is Section 5 where discussion on characterization models for impact assessment of different methods is provided. The characterization models are categorized into two types following the UNEP/SETAC guidelines: type I models without impact pathways and type II models with impact pathways. Different from methods incorporating type I/II characterization models, another LCA modeling approach, Life Cycle Attribute Assessment (LCAA, is also discussed in this review. We concluded that methods incorporating either type I or type II models have limitations. For type I models, the challenge lies in the systematic identification of relevant stakeholders and materiality issues; while for type II models, identification of impact pathways that most closely and accurately represent the real-world causal relationships is the key. LCAA may avoid these problems, but the ultimate questions differ from those asked by the methods using type I and II models.

Area of Concern: a new paradigm in life cycle assessment for ...

Science.gov (United States)

Purpose: As a class of environmental metrics, footprints have been poorly defined, have shared an unclear relationship to life cycle assessment (LCA), and the variety of approaches to quantification have sometimes resulted in confusing and contradictory messages in the marketplace. In response, a task force operating under the auspices of the UNEP/SETAC Life Cycle Initiative project on environmental life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) has been working to develop generic guidance for developers of footprint metrics. The purpose of this paper is to introduce a universal footprint definition and related terminology as well as to discuss modelling implications.MethodsThe task force has worked from the perspective that footprints should be based on LCA methodology, underpinned by the same data systems and models as used in LCA. However, there are important differences in purpose and orientation relative to LCA impact category indicators. Footprints have a primary orientation toward society and nontechnical stakeholders. They are also typically of narrow scope, having the purpose of reporting only in relation to specific topics. In comparison, LCA has a primary orientation toward stakeholders interested in comprehensive evaluation of overall environmental performance and trade-offs among impact categories. These differences create tension between footprints, the existing LCIA framework based on the area of protection paradigm and the core LCA standards ISO14040/44.Res

Life cycle management and assessment: approaches and visions towards sustainable manufacturing

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Westkämper, Engelbert; Alting, Leo; Arndt, Günther

2000-01-01

. The goal of this approach is to protect resources and maximize effectiveness by means of life cycle assessment, product data management, technical support and, last but not least, life cycle costing. This paper shows the existing approaches of LCM and discusses their prospects and further development....... concepts are required, new regulations have been passed or consumer values are changing, the differences between business areas are disappearing. Life cycle management (LCM) considers the product life cycle as a whole and optimizes the interaction of product design, manufacturing and life cycle activities...

Life Cycle Assessment of Wall Systems

Science.gov (United States)

Ramachandran, Sriranjani

Natural resource depletion and environmental degradation are the stark realities of the times we live in. As awareness about these issues increases globally, industries and businesses are becoming interested in understanding and minimizing the ecological footprints of their activities. Evaluating the environmental impacts of products and processes has become a key issue, and the first step towards addressing and eventually curbing climate change. Additionally, companies are finding it beneficial and are interested in going beyond compliance using pollution prevention strategies and environmental management systems to improve their environmental performance. Life-cycle Assessment (LCA) is an evaluative method to assess the environmental impacts associated with a products' life-cycle from cradle-to-grave (i.e. from raw material extraction through to material processing, manufacturing, distribution, use, repair and maintenance, and finally, disposal or recycling). This study focuses on evaluating building envelopes on the basis of their life-cycle analysis. In order to facilitate this analysis, a small-scale office building, the University Services Building (USB), with a built-up area of 148,101 ft2 situated on ASU campus in Tempe, Arizona was studied. The building's exterior envelope is the highlight of this study. The current exterior envelope is made of tilt-up concrete construction, a type of construction in which the concrete elements are constructed horizontally and tilted up, after they are cured, using cranes and are braced until other structural elements are secured. This building envelope is compared to five other building envelope systems (i.e. concrete block, insulated concrete form, cast-in-place concrete, steel studs and curtain wall constructions) evaluating them on the basis of least environmental impact. The research methodology involved developing energy models, simulating them and generating changes in energy consumption due to the above mentioned

Life cycle assessment of asphalt pavement maintenance.

Science.gov (United States)

2014-01-01

This study aims at developing a life cycle assessment (LCA) model to quantify the impact of pavement preservation on energy consumption and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The construction stage contains material, manufacture, transportation and plac...

Comparing Life-Cycle Costs of ESPCs and Appropriations-Funded Energy Projects: An Update to the 2002 Report

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shonder, John A.; Hughes, Patrick; Atkin, Erica

2006-01-01

A study was sponsored by FEMP in 2001 - 2002 to develop methods to compare life-cycle costs of federal energy conservation projects carried out through energy savings performance contracts (ESPCs) and projects that are directly funded by appropriations. The study described in this report follows up on the original work, taking advantage of new pricing data on equipment and on $500 million worth of Super ESPC projects awarded since the end of FY 2001. The methods developed to compare life-cycle costs of ESPCs and directly funded energy projects are based on the following tasks: (1) Verify the parity of equipment prices in ESPC vs. directly funded projects; (2) Develop a representative energy conservation project; (3) Determine representative cycle times for both ESPCs and appropriations-funded projects; (4) Model the representative energy project implemented through an ESPC and through appropriations funding; and (5) Calculate the life-cycle costs for each project.

Area of Concern: A new paradigm in life cycle assessment for the development of footprint metrics

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ridoutt, Bradley G.; Pfister, Stephan; Manzardo, Alessandro

2016-01-01

As a class of environmental metrics, footprints have been poorly defined, have shared an unclear relationship to life cycle assessment (LCA), and the variety of approaches to quantification have sometimes resulted in confusing and contradictory messages in the marketplace. In response, a task force...... operating under the auspices of the UNEP/SETAC Life Cycle Initiative project on environmental life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) has been working to develop generic guidance for developers of footprint metrics. The purpose of this paper is to introduce a universal footprint definition and related...... terminology as well as to discuss modelling implications. The task force has worked from the perspective that footprints should be based on LCA methodology, underpinned by the same data systems and models as used in LCA. However, there are important differences in purpose and orientation relative to LCA...

Nanotechnology and Life Cycle Assessment. A systems approach to Nanotechnology and the environment

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Klöpffer, Walter; Curran, Mary Ann; Frankl, Paolo

This report summarizes the results of “Nanotechnology and Life Cycle Assessment,” a twoday workshop jointly convened by the Woodrow Wilson Center Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies; the United States Environmental Protection Agency Office of Research and Development; and the European Commission......, RTD.G4 “Nano S&T: Converging Science and Technologies.” Held in October 2006, the workshop involved international experts from the fields of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and nanotechnology. The main program of the workshop consisted of introductory lectures, group discussions and a final plenary...... identified and discussed by the groups. The purpose of the workshop was to determine whether existing LCA tools and methods are adequate to use on a new technology. This document provides an overview of LCA and nanotechnology, discusses the current state of the art, identifies current knowledge gaps that may...

Improvement actions in waste management systems at the provincial scale based on a life cycle assessment evaluation.

Science.gov (United States)

Rigamonti, L; Falbo, A; Grosso, M

2013-11-01

This paper reports some of the findings of the 'GERLA' project: GEstione Rifiuti in Lombardia - Analisi del ciclo di vita (Waste management in Lombardia - Life cycle assessment). The project was devoted to support Lombardia Region in the drafting of the new waste management plan by applying a life cycle thinking perspective. The present paper mainly focuses on four Provinces in the Region, which were selected based on their peculiarities. Life cycle assessment (LCA) was adopted as the methodology to assess the current performance of the integrated waste management systems, to discuss strengths and weaknesses of each of them and to design their perspective evolution as of year 2020. Results show that despite a usual business approach that is beneficial to all the provinces, the introduction of technological and management improvements to the system provides in general additional energy and environmental benefits for all four provinces. The same improvements can be easily extended to the whole Region, leading to increased environmental benefits from the waste management sector, in line with the targets set by the European Union for 2020. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Life cycle management and assessment: approaches and visions towards sustainable manufacturing

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Westkämper, Engelbert; Alting, Leo; Arndt, Günther

2001-01-01

and optimizes the interaction of product design, manufacturing and life cycle activities. The goal of this approach is to protect resources and maximize effectiveness by means of life cycle assessment, product data management, technical support and, last but not least, life cycle costing. This paper shows....... Economically successful business areas can also be explored. Whether new service concepts are required, new regulations have been passed or consumer values are changing, the differences between business areas are disappearing. Life cycle management (LCM) considers the product life cycle as a whole...... the existing approaches of LCM and discusses their prospects and further development....

Challenges of electricity production scenarios modelling for life cycle assessment of environmental impacts

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Blanc, Isabelle; Beloin-Saint-Pierre, Didier

2013-01-01

This communication presents a first attempt at making a life cycle assessment of prospective electricity production scenarios which were designed in the EnerGEO project. We start by a basic review of system (in this case, scenario) modelling expectations in today's LCA study. We then review some of the challenges of implementation due to the lack of detailed description of present and future electricity production systems. The importance of a detailed description is then shown with an evaluation of uncertainty of life cycle impact assessment results for three scenarios of German electricity production in 2030. The significant uncertainties we found, prevent us from detecting a relevant trend or making any comparison between the three chosen scenarios. We finally come to the conclusion that the LCA methodology will become relevant for the environmental assessment of electricity production scenarios when many more detailed information are accounted to describe future technologies, structures and sources of energy. (orig.)

Challenges of electricity production scenarios modelling for life cycle assessment of environmental impacts

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Blanc, Isabelle; Beloin-Saint-Pierre, Didier [MINES ParisTech, Sophia Antipolis (France). Observation, Impacts, Energy Center

2013-07-01

This communication presents a first attempt at making a life cycle assessment of prospective electricity production scenarios which were designed in the EnerGEO project. We start by a basic review of system (in this case, scenario) modelling expectations in today's LCA study. We then review some of the challenges of implementation due to the lack of detailed description of present and future electricity production systems. The importance of a detailed description is then shown with an evaluation of uncertainty of life cycle impact assessment results for three scenarios of German electricity production in 2030. The significant uncertainties we found, prevent us from detecting a relevant trend or making any comparison between the three chosen scenarios. We finally come to the conclusion that the LCA methodology will become relevant for the environmental assessment of electricity production scenarios when many more detailed information are accounted to describe future technologies, structures and sources of energy. (orig.)

Dealing with Emergy Algebra in the Life Cycle Assessment Framework

Science.gov (United States)

The Life Cycle Inventory (LCI) represents one of the four steps of the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology, which is a standardized procedure (ISO 14040:2006) to estimate the environmental impacts generated by the production, use and disposal of goods and services. In this co...

Life Cycle Management

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bey, Niki

2018-01-01

This chapter gives an overview of Life Cycle Management (LCM)—a discipline that deals with the managerial tasks related to practicing sustainable development in an organisation . Just as Life Cycle Assessment, LCM advocates the life cycle perspective , and it applies this perspective in decision...

Spatial differentiated effect assessment for aquatic eutrophication in Life Cycle Assessment.

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Penailillo, Reinaldo

2005-01-01

The conventional evaluation of aquatic eutrophication in Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) expresses the contribution of nitrogen and/or phosphorus emissions to biomass production in terms of the equivalent emission of a reference substance. This assessment doe

Life cycle assessment perspectives on delivering an infant in the US

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Campion, Nicole; Thiel, Cassandra L.; DeBlois, Justin; Woods, Noe C.; Landis, Amy E.; Bilec, Melissa M.

2012-01-01

This study introduces life cycle assessment as a tool to analyze one aspect of sustainability in healthcare: the birth of a baby. The process life cycle assessment case study presented evaluates two common procedures in a hospital, a cesarean section and a vaginal birth. This case study was conducted at Magee-Womens Hospital of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, which delivers over 10,000 infants per year. The results show that heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC), waste disposal, and the production of the disposable custom packs comprise a large percentage of the environmental impacts. Applying the life cycle assessment tool to medical procedures allows hospital decision makers to target and guide efforts to reduce the environmental impacts of healthcare procedures. - Highlights: ► Life cycle assessment helps identify the environmental impacts of medical procedures. ► Disposable custom packs represent a large portion of environmental impacts of births. ► Electricity loading contributes to global warming potential and respiratory effects. ► Impact improvements should focus on heating, ventilation, and air conditioning and disposable custom packs.

Semantic catalogs for life cycle assessment data

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Kuczenski, Brandon; Davis, Christopher B.; Rivela, Beatriz; Janowicz, Krzysztof

2016-01-01

Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a highly interdisciplinary field that requires knowledge from different domains to be gathered and interpreted together. Although there are relatively few major data sources for LCA, the data themselves are presented with highly heterogeneous formats, interfaces, and

An attributional life cycle assessment for an Italian residential multifamily building.

Science.gov (United States)

Vitale, Pierluca; Arena, Umberto

2017-09-06

The study describes an attributional life cycle assessment carried out according to the ISO standards and focused on an Italian multifamily residential building. The aim was developing an exhaustive and reliable inventory of high-quality primary data, comparing the environmental impacts along the three stages of the building life cycle. The pre-use phase takes into account the production of all the construction materials, transportation, and on-site assembling. The use phase quantifies the resource consumptions for 50 years of the building utilization and ordinary maintenance. The end-of-life phase includes the building demolition and the management of generated wastes. The results quantify how the design criteria affect the environmental performances of the residential building along its life cycle. The role of the pre-use phase appears remarkable for global warming potential (GWP), due to the huge impacts of steel and concrete production processes. The use phase gives the largest contributions, which reach 77% and 84% of the total, for the categories of global warming and non-renewable energy. The end-of-life phase provides limited avoided impacts. A comparative analysis quantifies the improvements achievable with an alternative type of partitions and external walls. Acronyms: AC: air conditioning; C&DW: construction and demolition waste; CFL: compact fluorescent lamp; DHW: domestic hot water; EC: European Commission; EU: European Union; GDP: gross domestic product; GHG: greenhouse gases; GWP: global warming potential; LCA: life cycle assessment; LCI: life cycle inventory; LCIA: life cycle impact assessment; MFA: material flow analysis; NREP: non-renewable energy potential; RINP: respiratory inorganics potential; WFD: Waste Framework Directive.

NREL: U.S. Life Cycle Inventory Database - About the LCI Database Project

Science.gov (United States)

About the LCI Database Project The U.S. Life Cycle Inventory (LCI) Database is a publicly available database that allows users to objectively review and compare analysis results that are based on similar source of critically reviewed LCI data through its LCI Database Project. NREL's High-Performance

Life cycle assessment and the agri-food chain

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hermansen, John Erik; Nguyen, T Lan T

2012-01-01

Our food consumption is responsible for a major part of the environmental impact related to our total consumption. Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a product-oriented tool that can be used efficiently to identify improvement options within the food chain covering a product’s life cycle from cradle...... to grave, which is very complex for many foods, and to support choices of consumption. The LCA methodology is supported by public standards and public policy measures and has proved its value in business development for more environmentally friendly products. It is an essential feature that the effects...... of resource use and emissions associated with a product’s life cycle can be aggregated into impact categories (e.g., nonrenewable energy use, land occupation, global warming, acidification, etc.) and further aggregated into overall damage impacts (e.g., impacts on biodiversity, human health, and resource...

Hybrid life cycle assessment comparison of colloidal silica and cement grouted soil barrier remediation technologies.

Science.gov (United States)

Gallagher, Patricia M; Spatari, Sabrina; Cucura, Jeffrey

2013-04-15

Site remediation involves balancing numerous costs and benefits but often neglects the environmental impacts over the entire project life cycle. Life cycle assessment (LCA) offers a framework for inclusion of global environmental "systems-level" decision metrics in combination with technological and cost analysis. We compare colloidal silica (CS) and cement grouted soil barrier remediation technologies for soils affected by low level radionuclides at a U.S. Superfund site using hybrid LCA methods. CS is a new, high performance grouting material installed using permeation grouting techniques. Cement, a more traditional grouting material, is typically installed using jet grouting techniques. Life cycle impacts were evaluated using the US EPA TRACI 2 model. Results show the highest life cycle environmental impacts for the CS barrier occur during materials production and transportation to the site. In general, the life cycle impacts for the cement barrier were dominated by materials production; however, in the extreme scenario the life cycle impacts were dominated by truck transportation of spoils to a distant, off-site radioactive waste facility. It is only in the extreme scenario tested in which soils are transported by truck (Option 2) that spoils waste transport dominates LCIA results. Life cycle environmental impacts for both grout barriers were most sensitive to resource input requirements for manufacturing volumes and transportation. Uncertainty associated with the efficacy of new technology such as CS over its required design life indicates that barrier replacement could increase its life cycle environmental impact above that of the cement barrier. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Project Management Life Cycle Models to Improve Management in High-rise Construction

Science.gov (United States)

Burmistrov, Andrey; Siniavina, Maria; Iliashenko, Oksana

2018-03-01

The paper describes a possibility to improve project management in high-rise buildings construction through the use of various Project Management Life Cycle Models (PMLC models) based on traditional and agile project management approaches. Moreover, the paper describes, how the split the whole large-scale project to the "project chain" will create the factor for better manageability of the large-scale buildings project and increase the efficiency of the activities of all participants in such projects.

Project Management Life Cycle Models to Improve Management in High-rise Construction

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Burmistrov Andrey

2018-01-01

Full Text Available The paper describes a possibility to improve project management in high-rise buildings construction through the use of various Project Management Life Cycle Models (PMLC models based on traditional and agile project management approaches. Moreover, the paper describes, how the split the whole large-scale project to the "project chain" will create the factor for better manageability of the large-scale buildings project and increase the efficiency of the activities of all participants in such projects.

Life-Cycle Assessments of Selected NASA Ground-Based Test Facilities

Science.gov (United States)

Sydnor, George Honeycutt

2012-01-01

In the past two years, two separate facility-specific life cycle assessments (LCAs) have been performed as summer student projects. The first project focused on 13 facilities managed by NASA s Aeronautics Test Program (ATP), an organization responsible for large, high-energy ground test facilities that accomplish the nation s most advanced aerospace research. A facility inventory was created for each facility, and the operational-phase carbon footprint and environmental impact were calculated. The largest impacts stemmed from electricity and natural gas used directly at the facility and to generate support processes such as compressed air and steam. However, in specialized facilities that use unique inputs like R-134a, R-14, jet fuels, or nitrogen gas, these sometimes had a considerable effect on the facility s overall environmental impact. The second LCA project was conducted on the NASA Ames Arc Jet Complex and also involved creating a facility inventory and calculating the carbon footprint and environmental impact. In addition, operational alternatives were analyzed for their effectiveness at reducing impact. Overall, the Arc Jet Complex impact is dominated by the natural-gas fired boiler producing steam on-site, but alternatives were provided that could reduce the impact of the boiler operation, some of which are already being implemented. The data and results provided by these LCA projects are beneficial to both the individual facilities and NASA as a whole; the results have already been used in a proposal to reduce carbon footprint at Ames Research Center. To help future life cycle projects, several lessons learned have been recommended as simple and effective infrastructure improvements to NASA, including better utility metering and data recording and standardization of modeling choices and methods. These studies also increased sensitivity to and appreciation for quantifying the impact of NASA s activities.

Bridging Arctic environmental science and life cycle assessment

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Johnsen, Fredrik Moltu

2014-01-01

Current research aims to make the impact assessment module of life cycle assessment (LCA) less site-generic and thus more relevant to particular regions. The Arctic region attracts its share of interest when it comes to environmental issues, but little research has been performed with the explicit...

Hybrid life cycle assessment comparison of colloidal silica and cement grouted soil barrier remediation technologies

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Gallagher, Patricia M., E-mail: pmg24@drexel.edu [Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering, Drexel University, 3141 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, PA 19038 (United States); Spatari, Sabrina; Cucura, Jeffrey [Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering, Drexel University, 3141 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, PA 19038 (United States)

2013-04-15

Highlights: ► We use LCA to study environmental impacts of grouting techniques for site remediation. ► We consider colloidal silica permeation grouting and cement jet grouting. ► Manufacturing and transportation contribute significantly in all impact categories. ► Activity outside of direct site activity is important in assessing impacts. ► LCA can be used to consider sustainability criteria for remediation decisions. -- Abstract: Site remediation involves balancing numerous costs and benefits but often neglects the environmental impacts over the entire project life cycle. Life cycle assessment (LCA) offers a framework for inclusion of global environmental “systems-level” decision metrics in combination with technological and cost analysis. We compare colloidal silica (CS) and cement grouted soil barrier remediation technologies for soils affected by low level radionuclides at a U.S. Superfund site using hybrid LCA methods. CS is a new, high performance grouting material installed using permeation grouting techniques. Cement, a more traditional grouting material, is typically installed using jet grouting techniques. Life cycle impacts were evaluated using the US EPA TRACI 2 model. Results show the highest life cycle environmental impacts for the CS barrier occur during materials production and transportation to the site. In general, the life cycle impacts for the cement barrier were dominated by materials production; however, in the extreme scenario the life cycle impacts were dominated by truck transportation of spoils to a distant, off-site radioactive waste facility. It is only in the extreme scenario tested in which soils are transported by truck (Option 2) that spoils waste transport dominates LCIA results. Life cycle environmental impacts for both grout barriers were most sensitive to resource input requirements for manufacturing volumes and transportation. Uncertainty associated with the efficacy of new technology such as CS over its required

Hybrid life cycle assessment comparison of colloidal silica and cement grouted soil barrier remediation technologies

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gallagher, Patricia M.; Spatari, Sabrina; Cucura, Jeffrey

2013-01-01

Highlights: ► We use LCA to study environmental impacts of grouting techniques for site remediation. ► We consider colloidal silica permeation grouting and cement jet grouting. ► Manufacturing and transportation contribute significantly in all impact categories. ► Activity outside of direct site activity is important in assessing impacts. ► LCA can be used to consider sustainability criteria for remediation decisions. -- Abstract: Site remediation involves balancing numerous costs and benefits but often neglects the environmental impacts over the entire project life cycle. Life cycle assessment (LCA) offers a framework for inclusion of global environmental “systems-level” decision metrics in combination with technological and cost analysis. We compare colloidal silica (CS) and cement grouted soil barrier remediation technologies for soils affected by low level radionuclides at a U.S. Superfund site using hybrid LCA methods. CS is a new, high performance grouting material installed using permeation grouting techniques. Cement, a more traditional grouting material, is typically installed using jet grouting techniques. Life cycle impacts were evaluated using the US EPA TRACI 2 model. Results show the highest life cycle environmental impacts for the CS barrier occur during materials production and transportation to the site. In general, the life cycle impacts for the cement barrier were dominated by materials production; however, in the extreme scenario the life cycle impacts were dominated by truck transportation of spoils to a distant, off-site radioactive waste facility. It is only in the extreme scenario tested in which soils are transported by truck (Option 2) that spoils waste transport dominates LCIA results. Life cycle environmental impacts for both grout barriers were most sensitive to resource input requirements for manufacturing volumes and transportation. Uncertainty associated with the efficacy of new technology such as CS over its required

Life Cycle Assessment Of Hydrogen Production From Natural Gas Reforming Process

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ozturk, M.

2010-01-01

Society has become concerned about the issues of natural resource depletion and environmental degradation. The environmental performance of products or processes has become a key issue, which is why ways to minimize the effects on the environment are investigated. The most effective tool for this purpose is called life cycle assessment (LCA). This concept considers the entire life cycle of product or process. The life cycle of a product begins with the extraction of raw materials from the earth to create the product and ends at the point when all materials are returned to the earth. LCA makes it possible to estimate the cumulative environmental impacts resulting from all stages in the product life cycle, often including impacts not considered in more traditional analyses. Therefore, LCA provides a comprehensive view of the environmental aspects of the product or process and a more accurate picture of the true environmental trade-offs in product selection. In the case of this study, life cycle assessments of hydrogen production via natural gas reforming process are investigated for environmental affect.

Life cycle assessment: Existing building retrofit versus replacement

Science.gov (United States)

Darabi, Nura

The embodied energy in building materials constitutes a large part of the total energy required for any building (Thormark 2001, 429). In working to make buildings more energy efficient this needs to be considered. Integrating considerations about life cycle assessment for buildings and materials is one promising way to reduce the amount of energy consumption being used within the building sector and the environmental impacts associated with that energy. A life cycle assessment (LCA) model can be utilized to help evaluate the embodied energy in building materials in comparison to the buildings operational energy. This thesis takes into consideration the potential life cycle reductions in energy and CO2 emissions that can be made through an energy retrofit of an existing building verses demolition and replacement with a new energy efficient building. A 95,000 square foot institutional building built in the 1960`s was used as a case study for a building LCA, along with a calibrated energy model of the existing building created as part of a previous Masters of Building Science thesis. The chosen case study building was compared to 10 possible improvement options of either energy retrofit or replacement of the existing building with a higher energy performing building in order to see the life cycle relationship between embodied energy, operational energy, and C02 emissions. As a result of completing the LCA, it is shown under which scenarios building retrofit saves more energy over the lifespan of the building than replacement with new construction. It was calculated that energy retrofit of the chosen existing institutional building would reduce the amount of energy and C02 emissions associated with that building over its life span.

Developing IAM for Life Cycle Safety Assessment

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Toxopeus, Marten E.; Lutters, Diederick; Nee, Andrew Y.C.; Song, Bin; Ong, Soh-Khim

2013-01-01

This publication discusses aspects of the development of an impact assessment method (IAM) for safety. Compared to the many existing IAM’s for environmentally oriented LCA, this method should translate the impact of a product life cycle on the subject of safety. Moreover, the method should be

Life Cycle Assessment of fresh dairy packaging at ELOPAK

OpenAIRE

Ruttenborg, Vegard

2017-01-01

Nearly all food and drink products require some packaging, and the impact from production and consumption is causing a strain on the environment. To counteract the bad effects, business is emphasizing the environmental performance of products and therefore utilising Life Cycle Assessment as a tool to quantify the environmental impacts from a products life cycle. Elopak, which is an International supplier of paper-based packaging for liquid food, is a such company. This thesis i...

Life cycle assessment perspectives on delivering an infant in the US

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Campion, Nicole [University of Pittsburgh, 949 Benedum Hall, Pittsburgh, PA 15261 (United States); Thiel, Cassandra L., E-mail: clt31@pitt.edu [University of Pittsburgh, 949 Benedum Hall, Pittsburgh, PA 15261 (United States); DeBlois, Justin [University of Pittsburgh, 949 Benedum Hall, Pittsburgh, PA 15261 (United States); Woods, Noe C. [Magee-Womens Hospital of UPMC, 300 Halket Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15235 (United States); Landis, Amy E. [Arizona State University, P.O. Box 875306, Tempe, AZ 85287-5306 (United States); Bilec, Melissa M. [University of Pittsburgh, 949 Benedum Hall, Pittsburgh, PA 15261 (United States)

2012-05-15

This study introduces life cycle assessment as a tool to analyze one aspect of sustainability in healthcare: the birth of a baby. The process life cycle assessment case study presented evaluates two common procedures in a hospital, a cesarean section and a vaginal birth. This case study was conducted at Magee-Womens Hospital of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, which delivers over 10,000 infants per year. The results show that heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC), waste disposal, and the production of the disposable custom packs comprise a large percentage of the environmental impacts. Applying the life cycle assessment tool to medical procedures allows hospital decision makers to target and guide efforts to reduce the environmental impacts of healthcare procedures. - Highlights: Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer Life cycle assessment helps identify the environmental impacts of medical procedures. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer Disposable custom packs represent a large portion of environmental impacts of births. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer Electricity loading contributes to global warming potential and respiratory effects. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer Impact improvements should focus on heating, ventilation, and air conditioning and disposable custom packs.

Bioeconomy with algae - Life cycle sustainability assessment including biophysical climate impacts (ALBEDO) of an algae-based biorefinery

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Hingsamer, Maria; Bird, Neil; Kaltenegger, Ingrid; Jungmeier, Gerfried; Kleinegris, Dorinde; Lamers, Packo; Boussiba, Sammy; Rodolfi, Liliana; Norsker, Niels Henrik; Jacobs, Fons; Fenton, Marcus; Ranjbar, Reza; Hujanen, Mervi; Sanz, Macarena

2017-01-01

The viability of using microalgae for energy production depends on the overall sustainability (environmental, economic, social). The project FUEL4ME applies a life cycle sustainability assessment (LCSA) providing scientific indicators for economic (e.g. operational costs, investment cost, trade

Life cycle assessment for next generating vehicles. Feasibility study of alternative fuel vehicles and electric vehicles; Jisedai jidosha no life cycle assessment. Daitai nenryo jidosha oyobi denki jidosha no feasibility study

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hanyu, T; Iida, N [Keio University, Tokyo (Japan)

1997-10-01

To show environmental assessment of introduction of substitute fuel vehicles is important information to formulate the future vehicles policy. Life cycle assessment (LCA) is put forward to simulate such potential, allows us to state the reduction environmental impacts of substitute vehicles on their total life cycle. The purpose of this study is assessment and analysis of the life cycle CO2 emission for substitute fuel vehicles, such as, alternative fuel vehicles, electric vehicles, and hybrid electric vehicles. 8 refs., 9 figs., 3 tabs.

The factor of time in the life cycle assessment of housing

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Klunder, G.; van Nunen, H.

2003-01-01

Conducting life cycle assessments, or LCAs, involves many uncertainties, including those related to the factor of time. Time is very important in the environmental assessment of housing, because of the relatively long service life of houses. During a house's service life many changes occur, which

Life cycle assessment of soil and groundwater remediation technologies: literature review

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Lemming, Gitte; Hauschild, Michael Zwicky; Bjerg, Poul Løgstrup

2010-01-01

Background, aim, and scope Life cycle assessment (LCA) is becoming an increasingly widespread tool in support systems for environmental decision-making regarding the cleanup of contaminated sites. In this study, the use of LCA to compare the environmental impacts of different remediation...... and scope definition and the applied impact assessment. The studies differ in their basic approach since some are prospective with focus on decision support while others are retrospective aiming at a more detailed assessment of a completed remediation project. Literature review The literature review showed...... scenarios in terms of their associated environmental burden. Main features An overview of the assessed remediation technologies and contaminant types covered in the literature is presented. The LCA methodologies of the 12 reviewed studies were compared and discussed with special focus on their goal...

Life Cycle Assessment in the Cereal and Derived Products Sector

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Renzulli, Pietro A.; Bacenetti, Jacopo; Benedetto, Graziella

2015-01-01

environmental improvement in such systems. Following a brief introduction to the cereal sector and supply chain, this chapter reviews some of the current cereal-based life cycle thinking literature, with a particular emphasis on LCA. Next, an analysis of the LCA methodological issues emerging from......This chapter discusses the application of life cycle assessment methodologies to rice, wheat, corn and some of their derived products. Cereal product systems are vital for the production of commodities of worldwide importance that entail particular environmental hot spots originating from...... their widespread use and from their particular nature. It is thus important for tools such as life cycle assessment (LCA) to be tailored to such cereal systems in order to be used as a means of identifying the negative environmental effects of cereal products and highlighting possible pathways to overall...

Understanding future emissions from low-carbon power systems by integration of life-cycle assessment and integrated energy modelling

Science.gov (United States)

Pehl, Michaja; Arvesen, Anders; Humpenöder, Florian; Popp, Alexander; Hertwich, Edgar G.; Luderer, Gunnar

2017-12-01

Both fossil-fuel and non-fossil-fuel power technologies induce life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions, mainly due to their embodied energy requirements for construction and operation, and upstream CH4 emissions. Here, we integrate prospective life-cycle assessment with global integrated energy-economy-land-use-climate modelling to explore life-cycle emissions of future low-carbon power supply systems and implications for technology choice. Future per-unit life-cycle emissions differ substantially across technologies. For a climate protection scenario, we project life-cycle emissions from fossil fuel carbon capture and sequestration plants of 78-110 gCO2eq kWh-1, compared with 3.5-12 gCO2eq kWh-1 for nuclear, wind and solar power for 2050. Life-cycle emissions from hydropower and bioenergy are substantial (˜100 gCO2eq kWh-1), but highly uncertain. We find that cumulative emissions attributable to upscaling low-carbon power other than hydropower are small compared with direct sectoral fossil fuel emissions and the total carbon budget. Fully considering life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions has only modest effects on the scale and structure of power production in cost-optimal mitigation scenarios.

Environmental sustainability assessment of hydropower plant in Europe using life cycle assessment

Science.gov (United States)

Mahmud, M. A. P.; Huda, N.; Farjana, S. H.; Lang, C.

2018-05-01

Hydropower is the oldest and most common type of renewable source of electricity available on this planet. The end of life process of hydropower plant have significant environmental impacts, which needs to be identified and minimized to ensure an environment friendly power generation. However, identifying the environmental impacts and health hazards are very little explored in the hydropower processing routes despite a significant quantity of production worldwide. This paper highlight the life-cycle environmental impact assessment of the reservoir based hydropower generation system located in alpine and non-alpine region of Europe, addressing their ecological effects by the ReCiPe and CML methods under several impact-assessment categories such as human health, ecosystems, global warming potential, acidification potential, etc. The Australasian life-cycle inventory database and SimaPro software are utilized to accumulate life-cycle inventory dataset and to evaluate the impacts. The results reveal that plants of alpine region offer superior environmental performance for couple of considered categories: global warming and photochemical oxidation, whilst in the other cases the outcomes are almost similar. Results obtained from this study will take part an important role in promoting sustainable generation of hydropower, and thus towards environment friendly energy production.

Life cycle assessment of construction and demolition waste management

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Butera, Stefania; Christensen, Thomas Højlund; Astrup, Thomas Fruergaard

2015-01-01

Life cycle assessment (LCA) modelling of construction and demolition waste (C&DW) management was carried out. The functional unit was management of 1 Mg mineral, source separated C&DW, which is either utilised in road construction as a substitute for natural aggregates, or landfilled. The assessed...... of the use of C&DW. Typical uncertainties related to contaminant leaching were addressed. For most impact categories, utilisation of C&DW in road construction was preferable to landfilling; however, for most categories, utilisation resulted in net environmental burdens. Transportation represented the most...... of the impact assessment was critical for modelling the leaching impacts. Compared with the overall life cycle of building and construction materials, leaching emissions were shown to be potentially significant for toxicity impacts, compared with contributions from production of the same materials, showing...

Life cycle assessment of waste paper management

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Merrild, Hanna Kristina; Damgaard, Anders; Christensen, Thomas Højlund

2008-01-01

The significance of technical data, as well as the significance of system boundary choices, when modelling the environmental impact from recycling and incineration of waste paper has been studied by a life cycle assessment focusing oil global warming potentials. The consequence of choosing...... results. The modelling showed that recycling of paper, from a life cycle point of view, is environmentally equal or better than incineration with energy recovery only when the recycling technology is at a high environmental performance level. However, the modelling also showed that expanding the system...... a specific set of data for the reprocessing technology, the virgin paper manufacturing technology and the incineration technology, as well as the importance of the recycling rate Was Studied. Furthermore, the system was expanded to include forestry and to include fossil fuel energy substitution from saved...

Assessment of Environmental and Economic Impacts of Vine-Growing Combining Life Cycle Assessment, Life Cycle Costing and Multicriterial Analysis

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Giacomo Falcone

2016-08-01

Full Text Available The wine sector is going through a significant evolution dealing with the challenges of competition issues in international markets and with necessary commitments to sustainability improvement. In the wine supply chain, the agricultural phase represents a potential source of pollution and costs. From the farmers’ point of view, these contexts require them to be more attentive and find a compromise among environmental benefits, economic benefits, and costs linked to farming practices. This paper aims to make a sustainability assessment of different wine-growing scenarios located in Calabria (Southern Italy that combines conflicting insights, i.e., environmental and economic ones, by applying Life Cycle Assessment (LCA and Life Cycle Costing (LCC to identify the main hotspots and select the alternative scenarios closest to the ideal solution through the VIKOR multicriteria method. In particular, the latter allowed us to obtain synthetic indices for a two-dimensional sustainability assessment. Conventional practices associated to the espalier training system represent the best compromise from both environmental and economic points of view, due to the higher yield per hectare. The choices regarding Functional Unit (FU and indicators were shown to have a high influence on results.

ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT OF ROAD TRANSPORT IN A PASSENGER CAR USING THE LIFE CYCLE APPROACH

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Piotr FOLĘGA

2017-06-01

Full Text Available Environmental issues are an increasingly important aspect of management in the transport sector; new methods have been developed for assessment of the environment in the transport sector using the life cycle approach. The paper presents the application of Well to Wheel (WTW and Life Cycle Assessment (LCA in the transport sector. The WTW method focuses on energy analysis and greenhouse gas emissions during the life cycle of fuels. WTW is used to support decision-making on the environmental aspects of transport, particularly with regard to fuel life cycle management, but this method omits important stages in the life cycle, particularly the ones regarding important circular economy guidelines such as reduction of natural resource consumption, impact on human health, etc. The LCA method provides a much broader approach to environmental assessment than WTW. LCA takes into consideration environmental impact in the whole life cycle of the vehicle, from the stage of production, through the period of exploitation, and finally its disposal.

Application of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) in Sugar Industries

Science.gov (United States)

Astuti, Arieyanti Dwi; Astuti, Rahayu Siwi Dwi; Hadiyanto, Hadiyanto

2018-02-01

Sugar is one of the main commodities that are needed for human life. The demand of sugar is very high with the trend increase from year to year. This condition makes the sugar industry become a leading industry that must be maintained sustainability. The sustainability of the sugar industry is influenced by the use of energy and natural resources and the resulting environmental impacts. Therefore, an effort is needed to analyze the environmental aspects and potential environmental impacts resulting from a product (sugar), by using Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). LCA is a very important tool for the analysis of a process/system from its cradle to grave. This technique is very useful in the estimation of energy usage and environmental load of a product/system. This paper aims to describe the main elements of sugar industries using Life Cycle Assessment.

Life cycle assessments of energy from solid waste

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Finnveden, Goeran; Johansson, Jessica; Lind, Per; Moberg, Aasa [Stockholm Univ. (Sweden). Dept. of Systems Ecology/Natural Resoruces Management Inst.]|[Defence Research Establishment, Stockholm (Sweden). Div. of Defence Analysis

2000-09-01

The overall aim of the present study is to evaluate different strategies for treatment of solid waste based on a life-cycle perspective. Important goals are to identify advantages and disadvantages of different methods for treatment of solid waste, and to identify critical factors in the systems, including the background systems, which may significantly influence the results. Included in the study are landfilling, incineration, recycling, digestion and composting. The waste fractions considered are the combustible and recyclable or compostable fractions of municipal solid waste. The methodology used is Life Cycle Assessment. The results can be used for policy decisions as well as strategic decisions on waste management systems.

Life Cycle Sustainability Dashboard

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Traverso, Marzia; Finkbeiner, Matthias; Jørgensen, Andreas

2012-01-01

One method to assess the sustainability performance of products is life cycle sustainability assessment (LCSA), which assesses product performance considering the environmental,economic, and social dimensions of the life cycle. The results of LCSA can be used to compare different products...... of sustainability is the communicability of the results by means of a graphical representation (a cartogram), characterized by a suitable chromatic scale and ranking score. The integration of LCSA and the dashboard of sustainability into a so-called Life Cycle Sustainability Dashboard (LCSD) is described here...

Life cycle assessment of the Danish electricity distribution network

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Turconi, Roberto; Simonsen, Christian G.; Byriel, Inger P.

2014-01-01

Purpose This article provides life cycle inventory data for electricity distribution networks and a life cycle assessment (LCA) of the Danish transmission and distribution networks. The aim of the study was to evaluate the potential importance of environmental impacts associated with distribution...... complexity and material consumption. Infrastructure provided important contributions to metal depletion and freshwater eutrophication (copper and aluminum for manufacturing of the cables and associated recycling being the most important). Underground 50-kV lines had larger impacts than overhead lines, and 0...

Life cycle assessment of polysaccharide materials: a review

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Shen, L.|info:eu-repo/dai/nl/310872022; Patel, M.K.|info:eu-repo/dai/nl/18988097X

2008-01-01

Apart from conventional uses of polysaccharide materials, such as food, clothing, paper packaging and construction, new polysaccharide products and materials have been developed. This paper reviews life cycle assessment (LCA) studies in order to gain insight of the environmental profiles of

Transportation Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) Synthesis, Phase II

Science.gov (United States)

2018-04-24

The Transportation Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) Synthesis includes an LCA Learning Module Series, case studies, and analytics on the use of the modules. The module series is a set of narrated slideshows on topics related to environmental LCA. Phase I ...

Spatially explicit characterization of acidifying and eutrophying air pollution in life-cycle assessment

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Huijbregts, Mark A J; Schöpp, Wolfgang; Verkuijlen, Evert; Heijungs, Reinout; Reijnders, Lucas

2001-01-01

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

Life-cycle based dynamic assessment of mineral wool insulation in a Danish residential building application

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sohn, Joshua L.; Kalbar, Pradip; Banta, Gary T.

2017-01-01

There has been significant change in the way buildings are constructed and the way building energy performance is evaluated. Focus on solely the use phase of a building is beginning to be replaced by a life-cycle based performance assessment. This study assesses the environmental impact trade......-offs between the heat produced to meet a building's space heating load and insulation produced to reduce its space heating load throughout the whole life-cycle of a building. To obtain a more realistic valuation of this tradeoff, a dynamic heat production model, which accounts for political projections...... grid, which is potentially promoted at present in Danish regulation. It is further concluded that improvement of the mineral wool insulation production process could allow for greater levels of environmentally beneficial insulation and would also help in reducing the overall environmental burden from...

Life cycle assessment in wastewater treatment: : Influence of site-oriented normalization factors, life cycle impact assessment methods, and weighting methods

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Bai, Shunwen; Wang, Xiuheng; Zhang, X.; Zhao, Xinyue; Ren, N

2017-01-01

This present study aims to analyze the differences in results of different site-directional life cycle assessment
(LCA) methods applied in the field of wastewater treatment. Site-generic methods were employed and
compared with China-specific methods on a full-scale wastewater treatment case.

Life Cycle Impact Assessment in the Arctic: Challenges and Research Needs

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Johan Berg Pettersen

2017-09-01

Full Text Available Life cycle assessment (LCA is increasingly used for environmental assessment of products and production processes to support environmental decision-making both worldwide and in the Arctic. However, there are several weaknesses in the impact assessment methodology in LCA, e.g., related to uncertainties of impact assessment results, absence of spatial differentiation in characterization modeling, and gaps in the coverage of impact pathways of different “archetypal” environments. Searching for a new resource base and areas for operation, marine and marine-based industries are continuously moving north, which underlines the need for better life cycle impact assessment in the Arctic, particularly to aid in industrial environmental management systems and stakeholder communications. This paper aims to investigate gaps and challenges in the application of the currently available impact assessment methods in the Arctic context. A simplified Arctic mining LCA case study was carried out to demonstrate the relevance of Arctic emissions at the midpoint and endpoint levels, as well as possible influences of the Arctic context on the impact assessment results. Results of this study showed that significant research gaps remain in Arctic-dependent life cycle impact assessment, particularly on: (i the possible influences of the Arctic-specific features on characterization factors for impact assessment (such as seasonality, cold climate, precipitation, and marine dependence; and (ii the coverage of impact pathways, especially on the under-addressed marine impacts and marine/near-shore dispersion processes. Addressing those identified research gaps and demand for future Arctic life cycle impact assessment could increase the credibility of LCA as an environmental decision-making support tool for Arctic industries and better support sustainable Arctic development.

Life Cycle Assessment of Polymers in Qatar

OpenAIRE

ÖZERKAN, Nesibe Gözde; ADEED, Mariam AIMa’; KAHRAMAN, Ramazan

2011-01-01

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is gaining wider acceptance as a method that evaluates the environmental burdens associated with a product, process or activity by identifying and quantifying energy and materials used and wastes released to the environment, and assesses the impact of those energy and material used and released to the environment. It is also considered as one of the best environmental management tools that can be used to compare alternative eco-performances of recycling or disposal...

Project Assessment Framework through Design (PAFTD) - A Project Assessment Framework in Support of Strategic Decision Making

Science.gov (United States)

Depenbrock, Brett T.; Balint, Tibor S.; Sheehy, Jeffrey A.

2014-01-01

Research and development organizations that push the innovation edge of technology frequently encounter challenges when attempting to identify an investment strategy and to accurately forecast the cost and schedule performance of selected projects. Fast moving and complex environments require managers to quickly analyze and diagnose the value of returns on investment versus allocated resources. Our Project Assessment Framework through Design (PAFTD) tool facilitates decision making for NASA senior leadership to enable more strategic and consistent technology development investment analysis, beginning at implementation and continuing through the project life cycle. The framework takes an integrated approach by leveraging design principles of useability, feasibility, and viability and aligns them with methods employed by NASA's Independent Program Assessment Office for project performance assessment. The need exists to periodically revisit the justification and prioritization of technology development investments as changes occur over project life cycles. The framework informs management rapidly and comprehensively about diagnosed internal and external root causes of project performance.

PROJECT LIFE CYCLE OF LEASING MARINE VESSEL OWNERS AND CHARTERERS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Алла Витальевна БОНДАРЬ

2016-03-01

Full Text Available Based on the study of the basic types of the bareboat charter, presented algorithms decision on the justification of the respective projects. It was found that the initiator of the project can be both owners who wants to pass the boat rental and the charterer, and also who is the owner, who wants to take a boat for rent. It is proved that the implementation of these specific operations requires careful preparation, and using of the project approach will greatly enhance their effectiveness. We describe the life of the project finance lease from the standpoint of the marine vessel, the ship-owner and charterer. It is established that such projects characterized by four-phase structure of the life cycle: preparation, let's call it as the principal decision on (from the chartering of the vessel, the investment - to select the optimal variant (from the charter and the conclusion of the bareboat charter, the phase of operation of the vessel and the fourth - the closure of the project at the end of term bareboat charter. Skill description of the content of each phase, which will continue for the main participants of the project to determine the value of each phase and the value of the whole project.

Assessing social impacts in a life cycle perspective-Lessons learned

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hauschild, Michael Zwicky; Jørgensen, Andreas; Dreyer, Louise Camilla

2008-01-01

In our globalised economy, important stakeholder groups nowadays hold companies responsible for the social impacts they cause in their product chain through activities like child labour, corruption or discrimination of employees. Many companies thus see themselves in need of a tool which can help...... LCA methodology supplements the traditional environment-oriented LCA and the life cycle costing tools in support of sustainability management addressing all three pillars of sustainability: people, planet and profit....... them make informed decisions about their social impacts throughout the life cycle of their products. The paper presents lessons learned from four years of work with industry on development of a methodology for social Life Cycle Assessment and implementation in the industrial product chain. The Social...

Life cycle assessment-driven selection of industrial ecology strategies.

Science.gov (United States)

Ardente, Fulvio; Cellura, Maurizio; Lo Brano, Valerio; Mistretta, Marina

2010-01-01

The paper presents an application of the Life-Cycle Assessment (LCA) to the planning and environmental management of an “eco-industrial cluster.” A feasibility study of industrial symbiosis in southern Italy is carried out, where interlinked companies share subproducts and scraps, services, structures, and plants to reduce the related environmental impact. In particular, the research focuses on new recycling solutions to create open recycling loops in which plastic subproducts and scraps are transferred to external production systems. The main environmental benefits are the reduction of resource depletion, air emissions, and landfilled wastes. The proposed strategies are also economically viable and they suggest cost abatement for the involved companies. This research shows the need for a multidisciplinary approach to data processing and to complexity managing of the investigated systems. In this context, life-cycle thinking is required to be promoted throughout the economy, as well to be as a part of all decisions on products and other criteria such as functionality, health, and safety. The Life-Cycle Assessment approach can be assumed as a methodology for influencing decision makers to make sustainable choices.

Development and application of basis database for materials life cycle assessment in china

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Xiaoqing; Gong, Xianzheng; Liu, Yu

2017-03-01

As the data intensive method, high quality environmental burden data is an important premise of carrying out materials life cycle assessment (MLCA), and the reliability of data directly influences the reliability of the assessment results and its application performance. Therefore, building Chinese MLCA database is the basic data needs and technical supports for carrying out and improving LCA practice. Firstly, some new progress on database which related to materials life cycle assessment research and development are introduced. Secondly, according to requirement of ISO 14040 series standards, the database framework and main datasets of the materials life cycle assessment are studied. Thirdly, MLCA data platform based on big data is developed. Finally, the future research works were proposed and discussed.

Exergetic life cycle assessment of cement production process with waste heat power generation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sui, Xiuwen; Zhang, Yun; Shao, Shuai; Zhang, Shushen

2014-01-01

Highlights: • Exergetic life cycle assessment was performed for the cement production process. • Each system’s efficiency before and after waste heat power generation was analyzed. • The waste heat power generation improved the efficiency of each production system. • It provided technical support for the implementation of energy-saving schemes. - Abstract: The cement industry is an industry that consumes a considerable quantity of resources and energy and has a very large influence on the efficient use of global resources and energy. In this study, exergetic life cycle assessment is performed for the cement production process, and the energy efficiency and exergy efficiency of each system before and after waste heat power generation is investigated. The study indicates that, before carrying out a waste heat power generation project, the objective energy efficiencies of the raw material preparation system, pulverized coal preparation system and rotary kiln system are 39.4%, 10.8% and 50.2%, respectively, and the objective exergy efficiencies are 4.5%, 1.4% and 33.7%, respectively; after carrying out a waste heat power generation project, the objective energy efficiencies are 45.8%, 15.5% and 55.1%, respectively, and the objective exergy efficiencies are 7.8%, 2.8% and 38.1%, respectively. The waste heat power generation project can recover 3.7% of the total input exergy of a rotary kiln system and improve the objective exergy efficiencies of the above three systems. The study can identify degree of resource and energy utilization and the energy-saving effect of a waste heat power generation project on each system, and provide technical support for managers in the implementation of energy-saving schemes

Integration of Social Aspects in Decision Support, Based on Life Cycle Thinking

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Pere Fullana-i-Palmer

2011-03-01

Full Text Available Recently increasing attention has been paid to complementing environmental Life Cycle Assessment (LCA with social aspects. The paper discusses the selection of social impacts and indicators from existing frameworks like Social Life Cycle Assessment (SLCA and Social Impact Assessment (SIA. Two ongoing case studies, addressing sustainability assessment within decision support, were considered: (1 Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM in Indonesia; and (2 Integrated Packaging Waste Management in Spain and Portugal (FENIX. The focus was put on social impacts occurring due to decisions within these systems, such as choice of technologies, practices or suppliers. Thus, decision makers—here understood as intended users of the studies’ results—are not consumers that buy (or do not buy a product, such as in recent SLCA case-studies, but mainly institutions that decide about the design of the water or packaging waste management system. Therefore, in the FENIX project, a list of social impacts identified from literature was sent to the intended users to be ranked according to their priorities. Finally, the paper discusses to what extent the entire life cycle is reflected in SLCA impact categories and indicators, and explains how both life-cycle and on-site-related social impacts were chosen to be assessed. However, not all indicators in the two projects will assess all stages of the life cycle, because of their varying relevance in the different stages, data availability and practical interest of decision makers.

Challenges in implementing a Planetary Boundaries based Life-Cycle Impact Assessment methodology

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ryberg, Morten; Owsianiak, Mikolaj; Richardson, Katherine

2016-01-01

of resolving the challenges and developing such methodology is discussed. The challenges are related to technical issues, i.e., modelling and including the Earth System processes and their control variables as impact categories in Life-Cycle Impact Assessment and to theoretical considerations with respect...... to the interpretation and use of Life-Cycle Assessment results in accordance with the Planetary Boundary framework. The identified challenges require additional research before a Planetary Boundaries based Life-Cycle Impact Assessment method can be developed. Research on modelling the impacts on Earth System processes......Impacts on the environment from human activities are now threatening to exceed thresholds for central Earth System processes, potentially moving the Earth System out of the Holocene state. To avoid such consequences, the concept of Planetary Boundaries was defined in 2009, and updated in 2015...

Integrated manure utilization system life-cycle value assessment

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Row, J.; Neabel, D. [Pembina Inst. for Appropriate Development, Drayton Valley, AB (Canada)

2005-10-15

A life-cycle assessment of the Alberta Research Council (ARC) and Highmark Renewables' development of an integrated manure utilization system (IMUS) were presented. The assessment focused on an evaluation of factors of primary importance to government, investors and the livestock industry. IMUS technology uses manure as a resource to produce electricity, heat, bio-based fertilizer and reusable water. Results of the assessment indicated that IMUS plants have the potential to be financially viable if a power purchase of $90 MWh on average can be purchased from a 30,000 head livestock operation. A capital cost of under $11 million is necessary, and an established biofertilizer price of $50 per tonne should be established. An IMUS plant was estimated to reduce life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions by 70 to 80 per cent when compared to land spreading. Reductions are accomplished through displacing electricity from the provincial grid and reducing nitrous oxide (N{sub 2}O) emissions from spreading of manure The IMUS plants lessen environment impacts by reducing the extraction and consumption of non-renewable resources, and by displacing an estimated 11,700 GJ of coal and natural gas per 1000 head of cattle per year. In addition, various pathogens within manure are eliminated. The plants have the potential to eliminate the environmental hazards associated with the disposal of deadstock. The systems reduce manure odour, lessen truck traffic and are expected to contribute to rural economic diversification. Barriers to further implementation of IMUS were discussed, as well as emerging opportunities for IMUS developers. It was concluded that the initial assessments of the IMUS were positive. Further investigation is needed to determine actual life-cycle performance of the operations. 18 refs., 3 tabs., 3 figs.

Life Cycle Assessment of pig production systems of the Noir de Bigorre chain

OpenAIRE

Garcia-Launay, F; Rouillon, V; Faure, J; Fonseca, A

2018-01-01

Outdoor pig production systems relying on local pig breeds may cope with environmental and socio-economic challenges. They produce high quality products with added economic value and rely mainly on local feed resources. Within the European TREASURE project, we conducted the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of the Noir de Bigorre (NDB) pig production systems located in South West of France. The environmental impacts were calculated at farm gate and expressed per kg live pig and per ha land use. Fro...

Development of an Enhanced Generic Data Mining Life Cycle (DMLC)

OpenAIRE

Hofmann, Markus; Tierney, Brendan

2017-01-01

Data mining projects are complex and have a high failure rate. In order to improve project management and success rates of such projects a life cycle is vital to the overall success of the project. This paper reports on a research project that was concerned with the life cycle development for large scale data mining projects. The paper provides a detailed view of the design and development of a generic data mining life cycle called DMLC. The life cycle aims to support all members of data mini...

Life Cycle Assessment of the wind farm alpha ventus

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Wagner H.-J.

2013-06-01

Full Text Available Life Cycle Assessments (LCA is an important tool for industry and policy makers, used to determine the actual emissions of a product or technology throughout its whole life cycle. In case of energy production systems or power plants, analysis of energy required to produce the materials and processes; emissions resulting from various processes for materials production and processes resulting into their Cumulated Energy Demand (CED and Global Warming Potential (GWP become important parameters when making decisions on further research, development and deployment of any technology. The method of carrying out such analysis is explained through a case study.

Methodology for the Life Cycle Assessment of a Car-sharing Service

OpenAIRE

Guyon, Olivier

2017-01-01

Nowadays, circular economy is becoming more relevant in society. In the context of the automotive industry, we no longer simply work on emissions emitted during the vehicle use phase but rather on the environmental impacts induced during all phases of the vehicle's life cycle (manufacturing, logistics, use, maintenance and end of life). For this purpose, many automakers, including the Group PSA, use life cycle assessment (LCA) to determine these environmental impacts. Also, the economy of sha...

Life cycles of energetic systems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Adnot, Jerome; Marchio, Dominique; Riviere, Philippe; Duplessis, B.; Rabl, A.; Glachant, M.; Aggeri, F.; Benoist, A.; Teulon, H.; Daude, J.

2012-01-01

This collective publication aims at being a course for students in engineering of energetic systems, i.e. at learning how to decide to accept or discard a project, to select the most efficient system, to select the optimal system, to select the optimal combination of systems, and to classify independent systems. Thus, it presents methods to analyse system life cycle from an energetic, economic and environmental point of view, describes how to develop an approach to the eco-design of an energy consuming product, how to understand the importance of hypotheses behind abundant and often contradicting publicised results, and to be able to criticise or to put in perspective one's own analysis. The first chapters thus recall some aspects of economic calculation, introduce the assessment of investment and exploitation costs of energetic systems, describe how to assess and internalise environmental costs, present the territorial carbon assessment, discuss the use of the life cycle assessment, and address the issue of environmental management at a product scale. The second part proposes various case studies: an optimal fleet of thermal production of electric power, the eco-design of a refrigerator, the economic and environmental assessment of wind farms

A new data architecture for advancing life cycle assessment

Science.gov (United States)

IntroductionLife cycle assessment (LCA) has a technical architecture that limits data interoperability, transparency, and automated integration of external data. More advanced information technologies offer promise for increasing the ease with which information can be synthesized...

Developing Students' Understanding of Industrially Relevant Economic and Life Cycle Assessments

Science.gov (United States)

Bode, Claudia J.; Chapman, Clint; Pennybaker, Atherly; Subramaniam, Bala

2017-01-01

Training future leaders to understand life cycle assessment data is critical for effective research, business, and sociopolitical decision-making. However, the technical nature of these life cycle reports often makes them challenging for students and other nonexperts to comprehend. Therefore, we outline here the key takeaways from recent economic…

Environmental Impacts of Solar Thermal Systems with Life Cycle Assessment

OpenAIRE

De Laborderie , Alexis; Puech , Clément; Adra , Nadine; Blanc , Isabelle; Beloin-Saint-Pierre , Didier; Padey , Pierryves; Payet , Jérôme; Sie , Marion; Jacquin , Philippe

2011-01-01

Available on: http://www.ep.liu.se/ecp/057/vol14/002/ecp57vol14_002.pdf; International audience; Solar thermal systems are an ecological way of providing domestic hot water. They are experiencing a rapid growth since the beginning of the last decade. This study characterizes the environmental performances of such installations with a life-cycle approach. The methodology is based on the application of the international standards of Life Cycle Assessment. Two types of systems are presented. Fir...

Sustainable Development Factors in Pavement Life-Cycle: Highway/Airport Review

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Peyman Babashamsi

2016-03-01

Full Text Available Sustainability has gained as much importance as management in business. Sustainable pavement development as a business practice should involve making evaluations according to the triple bottom line in the pavement life-cycle. Despite the current approaches to evaluating the social as well as economic and environmental feasibility of pavement projects (involving highway and airport infrastructure, there has recently been a lack of consensus on a methodology to guarantee sustainability upon assessment and analysis during the pavement life-cycle. As sustainability is a complex issue, this study intends to further explore sustainability and elaborate on its meaning. The second step involves a general depiction of the major sustainability appraisal tools, namely cost-benefit analysis, life-cycle cost analysis, life-cycle assessment, multi-criteria decision-making, environmental impact assessment and social life-cycle assessment, and an explanation of their cons and pros. Subsequently, the article addresses the application of an organized methodology to highlight the main factors or concepts that should be applied in sustainable pavement development and, more specifically, in sustainable pavement management. In the final step, research recommendations toward sustainability are given. This study is aimed to assist decision-makers in pavement management to plan sustainability frameworks in accordance with probable boundaries and restrictions.

An integrated life cycle sustainability assessment of electricity generation in Turkey

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Atilgan, Burcin; Azapagic, Adisa

2016-01-01

This paper presents for the first time an integrated life cycle sustainability assessment of the electricity sector in Turkey, considering environmental, economic and social aspects. Twenty life cycle sustainability indicators (11 environmental, three economic and six social) are used to evaluate the current electricity options. Geothermal power is the best option for six environmental impacts but it has the highest capital costs. Small reservoir and run-of-river power has the lowest global warming potential while large reservoir is best for the depletion of elements and fossil resources, and acidification. It also has the lowest levelised costs, worker injuries and fatalities but provides the lowest life cycle employment opportunities. Gas power has the lowest capital costs but it provides the lowest direct employment and has the highest levelised costs and ozone layer depletion. Given these trade-offs, a multi-criteria decision analysis has been carried out to identify the most sustainable options assuming different stakeholder preferences. For all the preferences considered, hydropower is the most sustainable option for Turkey, followed by geothermal and wind electricity. This work demonstrates the importance for energy policy of an integrated life cycle sustainability assessment and how tensions between different aspects can be reconciled to identify win-win solutions. - Highlights: •First integrated life cycle sustainability assessment of the electricity sector in Turkey. •11 environmental, three economic and six social sustainability indicators estimated. •Multi-criteria decision analysis carried out to identify most sustainable options. •Hydro is the most sustainable option for Turkey, followed by geothermal and wind. •This work demonstrates how tensions among sustainability aspects can be reconciled.

Risk Assessment and Life Cycle Assessment, Environmental Strategies, Nordic Workshop, Vedbæk 1999

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Poll, Christian

At a Nordic workshop on Product-oriented Environmental Strategies the roles of risk and hazard assessment and life cycle assessment of products in the future regulation of chemicals were discussed by participants representing administration, academia and industry from the Nordic countries....... This report compiles the papers and presentations given at the workshop. The papers present and discuss the different assessment tools and procedures - for individual chemicals through hazard and risk assessments and for products, materials and services through life-cycle assessment. The report also contains......, consultants and private enterprises to consider these well-established tools as individually necessary for the future regulation of the chemical pressure on the environment and to accept them as complementary to each other. Together with other process- or chain oriented tools like Substance or Material Flow...

Total environmental impacts of biofuels from corn stover using a hybrid life cycle assessment model combining process life cycle assessment and economic input-output life cycle assessment.

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Changqi; Huang, Yaji; Wang, Xinye; Tai, Yang; Liu, Lingqin; Liu, Hao

2018-01-01

Studies on the environmental analysis of biofuels by fast pyrolysis and hydroprocessing (BFPH) have so far focused only on the environmental impacts from direct emissions and have included few indirect emissions. The influence of ignoring some indirect emissions on the environmental performance of BFPH has not been well investigated and hence is not really understood. In addition, in order to avoid shifting environmental problems from one medium to another, a comprehensive assessment of environmental impacts caused by the processes must quantify the environmental emissions to all media (air, water, and land) in relation to each life cycle stage. A well-to-wheels assessment of the total environmental impacts resulting from direct emissions and indirect emissions of a BFPH system with corn stover is conducted using a hybrid life cycle assessment (LCA) model combining the economic input-output LCA and the process LCA. The Tool for the Reduction and Assessment of Chemical and other environmental Impacts (TRACI) has been used to estimate the environmental impacts in terms of acidification, eutrophication, global climate change, ozone depletion, human health criteria, photochemical smog formation, ecotoxicity, human health cancer, and human health noncancer caused by 1 MJ biofuel production. Taking account of all the indirect greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, the net GHG emissions (81.8 g CO 2 eq/MJ) of the biofuels are still less than those of petroleum-based fuels (94 g CO 2 eq/MJ). Maize production and pyrolysis and hydroprocessing make major contributions to all impact categories except the human health criteria. All impact categories resulting from indirect emissions except eutrophication and smog air make more than 24% contribution to the total environmental impacts. Therefore, the indirect emissions are important and cannot be ignored. Sensitivity analysis has shown that corn stover yield and bio-oil yield affect the total environmental impacts of the biofuels

Life cycle assessment of a packaging waste recycling system in Portugal

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ferreira, S.; Cabral, M.; Cruz, N.F. da; Simões, P.; Marques, R.C.

2014-01-01

Highlights: • We modeled a real packaging waste recycling system. • The analysis was performed using the life cycle assessment methodology. • The 2010 situation was compared with scenarios where the materials were not recycled. • The “Baseline” scenario seems to be more beneficial to the environment. - Abstract: Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) has been used to assess the environmental impacts associated with an activity or product life cycle. It has also been applied to assess the environmental performance related to waste management activities. This study analyses the packaging waste management system of a local public authority in Portugal. The operations of selective and refuse collection, sorting, recycling, landfilling and incineration of packaging waste were considered. The packaging waste management system in operation in 2010, which we called “Baseline” scenario, was compared with two hypothetical scenarios where all the packaging waste that was selectively collected in 2010 would undergo the refuse collection system and would be sent directly to incineration (called “Incineration” scenario) or to landfill (“Landfill” scenario). Overall, the results show that the “Baseline” scenario is more environmentally sound than the hypothetical scenarios

Life cycle assessment of a packaging waste recycling system in Portugal

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ferreira, S.; Cabral, M. [CEG-IST, ULisboa, Av. Rovisco Pais, 1049-001 Lisbon (Portugal); Cruz, N.F. da, E-mail: nunocruz@tecnico.ulisboa.pt [IST, ULisboa, Av. Rovisco Pais, 1049-001 Lisbon (Portugal); Simões, P. [IST, ULisboa, Av. Rovisco Pais, 1049-001 Lisbon (Portugal); Marques, R.C. [CESUR, IST, ULisboa, Av. Rovisco Pais, 1049-001 Lisbon (Portugal)

2014-09-15

Highlights: • We modeled a real packaging waste recycling system. • The analysis was performed using the life cycle assessment methodology. • The 2010 situation was compared with scenarios where the materials were not recycled. • The “Baseline” scenario seems to be more beneficial to the environment. - Abstract: Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) has been used to assess the environmental impacts associated with an activity or product life cycle. It has also been applied to assess the environmental performance related to waste management activities. This study analyses the packaging waste management system of a local public authority in Portugal. The operations of selective and refuse collection, sorting, recycling, landfilling and incineration of packaging waste were considered. The packaging waste management system in operation in 2010, which we called “Baseline” scenario, was compared with two hypothetical scenarios where all the packaging waste that was selectively collected in 2010 would undergo the refuse collection system and would be sent directly to incineration (called “Incineration” scenario) or to landfill (“Landfill” scenario). Overall, the results show that the “Baseline” scenario is more environmentally sound than the hypothetical scenarios.

Life Cycle Assessment - Theory and Practice

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

This book is a uniquely pedagogical while still comprehensive state-of-the-art description of LCA-methodology and its broad range of applications. The five parts of the book conveniently provide: I) the history and context of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) with its central role as quantitative and s...... needed to perform an LCA. V) An appendix with an LCA report template, a full example LCA report serving as inspiration for students who write their first LCA report, and a more detailed overview of existing LCIA methods and their similarities and differences....

Global warming implications of facade parameters: A life cycle assessment of residential buildings in Bahrain

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Radhi, Hassan; Sharples, Stephen

2013-01-01

On a global scale, the Gulf Corporation Council Countries (GCCC), including Bahrain, are amongst the top countries in terms of carbon dioxide emissions per capita. Building authority in Bahrain has set a target of 40% reduction of electricity consumption and associated CO 2 emissions to be achieved by using facade parameters. This work evaluates how the life cycle CO 2 emissions of buildings are affected by facade parameters. The main focus is placed on direct and indirect CO 2 emissions from three contributors, namely, chemical reactions during production processes (Pco 2 ), embodied energy (Eco 2 ) and operational energy (OPco 2 ). By means of the life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology, it has been possible to show that the greatest environmental impact occurs during the operational phase (80–90%). However, embodied CO 2 emissions are an important factor that needs to be brought into the systems used for appraisal of projects, and hence into the design decisions made in developing projects. The assessment shows that masonry blocks are responsible for 70–90% of the total CO 2 emissions of facade construction, mainly due to their physical characteristics. The highest Pco 2 emissions factors are those of window elements, particularly aluminium frames. However, their contribution of CO 2 emissions depends largely on the number and size of windows. Each square metre of glazing is able to increase the total CO 2 emissions by almost 30% when compared with the same areas of opaque walls. The use of autoclaved aerated concrete (AAC) walls reduces the total life cycle CO 2 emissions by almost 5.2% when compared with ordinary walls, while the use of thermal insulation with concrete wall reduces CO 2 emissions by 1.2%. The outcome of this work offers to the building industry a reliable indicator of the environmental impact of residential facade parameters. - Highlights: ► Life cycle carbon assessment of façade parameters. ► Greatest environmental impact occurs

Evaluation of Environmental Impacts for Rice Agroecosystems using Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)

OpenAIRE

S. Khoramdel; J. Shabahang; A. Amin Ghafouri

2017-01-01

In order to evaluate life cycle assessment (LCA) for rice agroecosystems based on mean of nitrogen fertilizer levels (less than 190, 190-200, 200-210, 210-220 and more than 220 kg N ha) during 1999-2012, an experiment was conducted. Four steps includung goal definition and scoping, inventory analysis, life cycle impact assessment and integration and interpretation were computed. Functional unit was considered as one tone paddy. Impact categories were acidification, eutrophication in aquatic a...

Improvement actions in waste management systems at the provincial scale based on a life cycle assessment evaluation

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Rigamonti, L., E-mail: lucia.rigamonti@polimi.it; Falbo, A.; Grosso, M.

2013-11-15

Highlights: • LCA was used for evaluating the performance of four provincial waste management systems. • Milano, Bergamo, Pavia and Mantova (Italy) are the provinces selected for the analysis. • Most of the data used to model the systems are primary. • Significant differences were found among the provinces located in the same Region. • LCA was used as a decision-supporting tool by Regione Lombardia. - Abstract: This paper reports some of the findings of the ‘GERLA’ project: GEstione Rifiuti in Lombardia – Analisi del ciclo di vita (Waste management in Lombardia – Life cycle assessment). The project was devoted to support Lombardia Region in the drafting of the new waste management plan by applying a life cycle thinking perspective. The present paper mainly focuses on four Provinces in the Region, which were selected based on their peculiarities. Life cycle assessment (LCA) was adopted as the methodology to assess the current performance of the integrated waste management systems, to discuss strengths and weaknesses of each of them and to design their perspective evolution as of year 2020. Results show that despite a usual business approach that is beneficial to all the provinces, the introduction of technological and management improvements to the system provides in general additional energy and environmental benefits for all four provinces. The same improvements can be easily extended to the whole Region, leading to increased environmental benefits from the waste management sector, in line with the targets set by the European Union for 2020.

Improvement actions in waste management systems at the provincial scale based on a life cycle assessment evaluation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rigamonti, L.; Falbo, A.; Grosso, M.

2013-01-01

Highlights: • LCA was used for evaluating the performance of four provincial waste management systems. • Milano, Bergamo, Pavia and Mantova (Italy) are the provinces selected for the analysis. • Most of the data used to model the systems are primary. • Significant differences were found among the provinces located in the same Region. • LCA was used as a decision-supporting tool by Regione Lombardia. - Abstract: This paper reports some of the findings of the ‘GERLA’ project: GEstione Rifiuti in Lombardia – Analisi del ciclo di vita (Waste management in Lombardia – Life cycle assessment). The project was devoted to support Lombardia Region in the drafting of the new waste management plan by applying a life cycle thinking perspective. The present paper mainly focuses on four Provinces in the Region, which were selected based on their peculiarities. Life cycle assessment (LCA) was adopted as the methodology to assess the current performance of the integrated waste management systems, to discuss strengths and weaknesses of each of them and to design their perspective evolution as of year 2020. Results show that despite a usual business approach that is beneficial to all the provinces, the introduction of technological and management improvements to the system provides in general additional energy and environmental benefits for all four provinces. The same improvements can be easily extended to the whole Region, leading to increased environmental benefits from the waste management sector, in line with the targets set by the European Union for 2020

Quantifying Cost Risk Early in the Life Cycle

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mar, B.

2004-01-01

A new method for analyzing life cycle cost risk on large programs is presented that responds to an increased emphasis on improving sustainability for long-term programs. This method provides better long-term risk assessment and risk management techniques. It combines standard Monte Carlo analysis of risk drivers and a new data-driven method developed by the BMDO. The approach permits quantification of risks throughout the entire life cycle without resorting to difficult to support subjective methods. The BMDO methodology is shown to be relatively straightforward to apply to a specific component or process within a project using standard technical risk assessment methods. The total impact on system is obtained using the program WBS, which allows for the capture of correlated risks shared by multiple WBS items. Once the correlations and individual component risks are captured, a Monte Carlo simulation can be run using a modeling tool such as ANALYTICA to produce the overall life cycle cost risk

Life Cycle Assessment of Concrete

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Sjunnesson, Jeannette

2005-09-15

This is an environmental study on concrete that follows the standard protocol of life cycle assessment (LCA). The study is done for two types of concrete, ordinary and frost-resistant concrete, and has an extra focus on the superplasticizers used as admixtures. The utilization phase is not included in this study since the type of construction for which the concrete is used is not defined and the concrete is assumed to be inert during this phase. The results show that it is the production of the raw material and the transports involved in the life cycle of concrete that are the main contributors to the total environmental load. The one single step in the raw material production that has the highest impact is the production of cement. Within the transportation operations the transportation of concrete is the largest contributor, followed by the transportation of the cement. The environmental impact of frost-resistant concrete is between 24-41 % higher than that of ordinary concrete due to its higher content of cement. Superplasticizers contribute with approximately 0.4-10.4 % of the total environmental impact of concrete, the least to the global warming potential (GWP) and the most to the photochemical ozone creation potential (POCP). Also the toxicity of the superplasticizers is investigated and the conclusion is that the low amount of leakage of superplasticizers from concrete leads to a low risk for the environment and for humans.

Life cycle assessment of water supply alternatives in water-receiving areas of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project in China.

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Yi; Xiong, Wei; Zhang, Wenlong; Wang, Chao; Wang, Peifang

2016-02-01

To alleviate the water shortage in northern China, the Chinese government launched the world's largest water diversion project, the South-to-North Water Diversion Project (SNWDP), which delivers water from water-sufficient southern China to water-deficient northern China. However, an up-to-date study has not been conducted to determine whether the project is a favorable option to augment the water supply from an environmental perspective. The life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology integrated with a freshwater withdrawal category (FWI) was adopted to compare water supply alternatives in the water-receiving areas of the SNWDP, i.e., water diversion, wastewater reclamation and seawater desalination. Beijing, Tianjin, Jinan and Qingdao were studied as representative cities because they are the primary water-receiving areas of the SNWDP. The results revealed that the operation phase played the dominant role in all but one of the life cycle impact categories considered and contributed to more than 70% of their scores. For Beijing and Tianjin, receiving water through the SNWDP is the most sustainable option to augment the water supply. The result can be drawn in all of the water-receiving areas of the middle route of the SNWDP. For Jinan and Qingdao, the most sustainable option is the wastewater reclamation system. The seawater desalination system obtains the highest score of the standard impact indicators in all of the study areas, whereas it is the most favorable water supply option when considering the freshwater withdrawal impact. Although the most sustainable water supply alternative was recommended through an LCA analysis, multi-water resources should be integrated into the region's water supply from the perspective of water sustainability. The results of this study provide a useful recommendation on the management of water resources for China. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Integrative Application of Life Cycle Assessment and Risk Assessment to Environmental Impacts of Anthropogenic Pollutants at a Watershed Scale.

Science.gov (United States)

Lin, Xiaodan; Yu, Shen; Ma, Hwongwen

2018-01-01

Intense human activities have led to increasing deterioration of the watershed environment via pollutant discharge, which threatens human health and ecosystem function. To meet a need of comprehensive environmental impact/risk assessment for sustainable watershed development, a biogeochemical process-based life cycle assessment and risk assessment (RA) integration for pollutants aided by geographic information system is proposed in this study. The integration is to frame a conceptual protocol of "watershed life cycle assessment (WLCA) for pollutants". The proposed WLCA protocol consists of (1) geographic and environmental characterization mapping; (2) life cycle inventory analysis; (3) integration of life-cycle impact assessment (LCIA) with RA via characterization factor of pollutant of interest; and (4) result analysis and interpretation. The WLCA protocol can visualize results of LCIA and RA spatially for the pollutants of interest, which might be useful for decision or policy makers for mitigating impacts of watershed development.

An approach to incorporate risks into a product's life-cycle assessment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pirhonen, P.

1995-01-01

Life-cycle assessment is usually based on regular discharges that occur at a more or less constant rate. Nevertheless, the more factors that are taken into account in the LCA the better picture it gives on the environmental aspects of a product. In this study an approach to incorporate accidental releases into a products' life-cycle assessment was developed. In this approach accidental releases are divided into two categories. The first category consists of those unplanned releases which occur with a predicted level and frequency. Due to the high frequency and small release size at a time, these accidental releases can be compared to continuous emissions. Their global impacts are studied in this approach. Accidental releases of the second category are sudden, unplanned releases caused by exceptional situations, e.g. technical failure, action error or disturbances in process conditions. These releases have a singular character and local impacts are typical of them. As far as the accidental releases of the second category are concerned, the approach introduced in this study results in a risk value for every stage of a life-cycle, the sum of which is a risk value for the whole life-cycle. Risk value is based on occurrence frequencies of incidents and potential environmental damage caused by releases. Risk value illustrates the level of potential damage caused by accidental releases related to the system under study and is meant to be used for comparison of these levels of two different products. It can also be used to compare the risk levels of different stages of the life-cycle. An approach was illustrated using petrol as an example product. The whole life-cycle of petrol from crude oil production to the consumption of petrol was studied

Life cycle assessment and life cycle costing of bioethanol from sugarcane in Brazil

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Luo, Lin; Van der Voet, Ester; Huppes, Gjalt

2009-01-01

Brazil has always been the pioneer in the application of bioethanol as a main fuel for automobiles, hence environmental and economic analyses of the Brazilian ethanol industries are of crucial importance. This study presents a comparative life cycle assessment (LCA) on gasoline and ethanol as fuels, and with two types of blends of gasoline with bioethanol, all used in a midsize car. The focus is on a main application in Brazil, sugarcane based ethanol. The results of two cases are presented: base case - bioethanol production from sugarcane and electricity generation from bagasse; future case - bioethanol production from both sugarcane and bagasse and electricity generation from wastes. In both cases sugar is co-produced. The life cycles of fuels include gasoline production, agricultural production of sugarcane, ethanol production, sugar and electricity co-production, blending ethanol with gasoline to produce E10 (10% of ethanol) and E85 (85%), and finally the use of gasoline, E10, E85 and pure ethanol. Furthermore, a life cycle costing (LCC) was conducted to give an indication on fuel economy in both cases. The results show that in the base case less GHG is emitted; while the overall evaluation of these fuel options depends on the importance attached to different impacts. The future case is certainly more economically attractive, which has been the driving force for development in the ethanol industry in Brazil. Nevertheless, the outcomes depend very much on the assumed price for crude oil. In LCC a steady-state cost model was used and only the production cost was taken into account. In the real market the prices of fuels are very much dependent on the taxes and subsidies. Technological development can help in lowering both the environmental impact and the prices of the ethanol fuels. (author)

A Generic Life Cycle Assessment Tool for Chemical-biochemical Processes

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kalakul, Sawitree; Malakul, Pomthong; Siemanond, Kitipat

2013-01-01

As environmental impacts and resource depletion are serious concerns for the modern society, they also provide the motivation and need to design processes that are not only economically and operationally feasible, but also environmentally friendly. In this respect, life cycle assessment (LCA......) is a tool for quantifying potential environmental impacts throughout the life cycle of the product or process. It can be used in conjunction with an economic tool to evaluate the design of any existing and/or new chemical-biochemical process and create improvement options in order to arrive at the best...

Life Cycle Assessment of Energy Systems: Closing the Ethical Loophole of Social Sustainability

OpenAIRE

Sakellariou, Nikolaos

2015-01-01

AbstractLife Cycle Assessment of Energy Systems: Closing the Ethical Loophole of Social SustainabilitybyNikolaos SakellariouDoctor of Philosophy in Environmental Science, Policy, and ManagementUniversity of California, BerkeleyProfessor Alastair T. Iles, ChairThis dissertation investigates the historical and normative bases of what contemporary engineers consider to be the embodiment of sustainability: Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). It explores the interplay among technology ethics, energy syst...

Evaluating Managerial Styles for System Development Life Cycle Stages to Ensure Software Project Success

Science.gov (United States)

Kocherla, Showry

2012-01-01

Information technology (IT) projects are considered successful if they are completed on time, within budget, and within scope. Even though, the required tools and methodologies are in place, IT projects continue to fail at a higher rate. Current literature lacks explanation for success within the stages of system development life-cycle (SDLC) such…

Life cycle assessment of electronic waste treatment.

Science.gov (United States)

Hong, Jinglan; Shi, Wenxiao; Wang, Yutao; Chen, Wei; Li, Xiangzhi

2015-04-01

Life cycle assessment was conducted to estimate the environmental impact of electronic waste (e-waste) treatment. E-waste recycling with an end-life disposal scenario is environmentally beneficial because of the low environmental burden generated from human toxicity, terrestrial ecotoxicity, freshwater ecotoxicity, and marine ecotoxicity categories. Landfill and incineration technologies have a lower and higher environmental burden than the e-waste recycling with an end-life disposal scenario, respectively. The key factors in reducing the overall environmental impact of e-waste recycling are optimizing energy consumption efficiency, reducing wastewater and solid waste effluent, increasing proper e-waste treatment amount, avoiding e-waste disposal to landfill and incineration sites, and clearly defining the duties of all stakeholders (e.g., manufacturers, retailers, recycling companies, and consumers). Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Comparative alternative materials assessment to screen toxicity hazards in the life cycle of CIGS thin film photovoltaics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Eisenberg, Daniel A.; Yu, Mengjing; Lam, Carl W.; Ogunseitan, Oladele A.; Schoenung, Julie M.

2013-01-01

Highlights: • Comparative alternatives assessment of thin film manufacturing technologies. • Development of chemical alternatives assessment in a life cycle context. • Screening of manufacturing and solar cell hazardous substances simultaneously. -- Abstract: Copper–indium–gallium–selenium–sulfide (CIGS) thin film photovoltaics are increasingly penetrating the market supply for consumer solar panels. Although CIGS is attractive for producing less greenhouse gas emissions than fossil-fuel based energy sources, CIGS manufacturing processes and solar cell devices use hazardous materials that should be carefully considered in evaluating and comparing net environmental benefits of energy products. Through this research, we present a case study on the toxicity hazards associated with alternative materials selection for CIGS manufacturing. We applied two numeric models, The Green Screen for Safer Chemicals™ and the Toxic Potential Indicator. To improve the sensitivity of the model outputs, we developed a novel, life cycle thinking based hazard assessment method that facilitates the projection of hazards throughout material life cycles. Our results show that the least hazardous CIGS solar cell device and manufacturing protocol consist of a titanium substrate, molybdenum metal back electrode, CuInS 2 p-type absorber deposited by spray pyrolysis, ZnS buffer deposited by spray ion layer gas reduction, ZnO:Ga transparent conducting oxide (TCO) deposited by sputtering, and the encapsulant polydimethylsiloxane

Site-dependent life-cycle impact assessment of acidification

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Potting, Josepha Maria Barbara; Schöpp, W.; Blok, Kornelis

1998-01-01

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...

Life Cycle Assessment of Completely Recyclable Concrete.

Science.gov (United States)

De Schepper, Mieke; Van den Heede, Philip; Van Driessche, Isabel; De Belie, Nele

2014-08-21

Since the construction sector uses 50% of the Earth's raw materials and produces 50% of its waste, the development of more durable and sustainable building materials is crucial. Today, Construction and Demolition Waste (CDW) is mainly used in low level applications, namely as unbound material for foundations, e.g., in road construction. Mineral demolition waste can be recycled as crushed aggregates for concrete, but these reduce the compressive strength and affect the workability due to higher values of water absorption. To advance the use of concrete rubble, Completely Recyclable Concrete (CRC) is designed for reincarnation within the cement production, following the Cradle-to-Cradle (C2C) principle. By the design, CRC becomes a resource for cement production because the chemical composition of CRC will be similar to that of cement raw materials. If CRC is used on a regular basis, a closed concrete-cement-concrete material cycle will arise, which is completely different from the current life cycle of traditional concrete. Within the research towards this CRC it is important to quantify the benefit for the environment and Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) needs to be performed, of which the results are presented in a this paper. It was observed that CRC could significantly reduce the global warming potential of concrete.

Life Cycle Assessment of Completely Recyclable Concrete

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mieke De Schepper

2014-08-01

Full Text Available Since the construction sector uses 50% of the Earth’s raw materials and produces 50% of its waste, the development of more durable and sustainable building materials is crucial. Today, Construction and Demolition Waste (CDW is mainly used in low level applications, namely as unbound material for foundations, e.g., in road construction. Mineral demolition waste can be recycled as crushed aggregates for concrete, but these reduce the compressive strength and affect the workability due to higher values of water absorption. To advance the use of concrete rubble, Completely Recyclable Concrete (CRC is designed for reincarnation within the cement production, following the Cradle-to-Cradle (C2C principle. By the design, CRC becomes a resource for cement production because the chemical composition of CRC will be similar to that of cement raw materials. If CRC is used on a regular basis, a closed concrete-cement-concrete material cycle will arise, which is completely different from the current life cycle of traditional concrete. Within the research towards this CRC it is important to quantify the benefit for the environment and Life Cycle Assessment (LCA needs to be performed, of which the results are presented in a this paper. It was observed that CRC could significantly reduce the global warming potential of concrete.

Comparative life cycle assessment of disposable and reusable laryngeal mask airways.

Science.gov (United States)

Eckelman, Matthew; Mosher, Margo; Gonzalez, Andres; Sherman, Jodi

2012-05-01

Growing awareness of the negative impacts from the practice of health care on the environment and public health calls for the routine inclusion of life cycle criteria into the decision-making process of device selection. Here we present a life cycle assessment of 2 laryngeal mask airways (LMAs), a one-time-use disposable Unique™ LMA and a 40-time-use reusable Classic™ LMA. In life cycle assessment, the basis of comparison is called the "functional unit." For this report, the functional unit of the disposable and reusable LMAs was taken to be maintenance of airway patency by 40 disposable LMAs or 40 uses of 1 reusable LMA. This was a cradle-to-grave study that included inputs and outputs for the manufacture, transport, use, and waste phases of the LMAs. The environmental impacts of the 2 LMAs were estimated using SimaPro life cycle assessment software and the Building for Environmental and Economic Sustainability impact assessment method. Sensitivity and simple life cycle cost analyses were conducted to aid in interpretation of the results. The reusable LMA was found to have a more favorable environmental profile than the disposable LMA as used at Yale New Haven Hospital. The most important sources of impacts for the disposable LMA were the production of polymers, packaging, and waste management, whereas for the reusable LMA, washing and sterilization dominated for most impact categories. The differences in environmental impacts between these devices strongly favor reusable devices. These benefits must be weighed against concerns regarding transmission of infection. Health care facilities can decrease their environmental impacts by using reusable LMAs, to a lesser extent by selecting disposable LMA models that are not made of certain plastics, and by ordering in bulk from local distributors. Certain practices would further reduce the environmental impacts of reusable LMAs, such as increasing the number of devices autoclaved in a single cycle to 10 (-25% GHG

Human and ecological life cycle tools for the integrated assessment of systems (HELIAS)

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Guinée, Jeroen B.; Heijungs, Reinout; Kleijn, René; Van Der Voet, Ester; De Koning, Arjan; Van Oers, Lauran; Elshkaki, Ayman; Huele, Ruben; Huppes, Gjalt; Suh, Sangwon; Sleeswijk, Anneke Wegener

Goal, Scope and Background. CML has contributed to the development of life cycle decision support tools, particularly Substance/Material Flow Analysis (SFA respectively MFA) and Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). Ever since these tools emerged there have been discussions on how these tools relate to each

Climate impacts of bioenergy: Inclusion of carbon cycle and albedo dynamics in life cycle impact assessment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bright, Ryan M.; Cherubini, Francesco; Strømman, Anders H.

2012-01-01

Life cycle assessment (LCA) can be an invaluable tool for the structured environmental impact assessment of bioenergy product systems. However, the methodology's static temporal and spatial scope combined with its restriction to emission-based metrics in life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) inhibits its effectiveness at assessing climate change impacts that stem from dynamic land surface–atmosphere interactions inherent to all biomass-based product systems. In this paper, we focus on two dynamic issues related to anthropogenic land use that can significantly influence the climate impacts of bioenergy systems: i) temporary changes to the terrestrial carbon cycle; and ii) temporary changes in land surface albedo—and illustrate how they can be integrated within the LCA framework. In the context of active land use management for bioenergy, we discuss these dynamics and their relevancy and outline the methodological steps that would be required to derive case-specific biogenic CO 2 and albedo change characterization factors for inclusion in LCIA. We demonstrate our concepts and metrics with application to a case study of transportation biofuel sourced from managed boreal forest biomass in northern Europe. We derive GWP indices for three land management cases of varying site productivities to illustrate the importance and need to consider case- or region-specific characterization factors for bioenergy product systems. Uncertainties and limitations of the proposed metrics are discussed. - Highlights: ► A method for including temporary surface albedo and carbon cycle changes in Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA) is elaborated. ► Concepts are applied to a single bioenergy case whereby a range of feedstock productivities are shown to influence results. ► Results imply that case- and site-specific characterization factors can be essential for a more informed impact assessment. ► Uncertainties and limitations of the proposed methodologies are elaborated.

Life cycle assessment in support of sustainable transportation

Science.gov (United States)

Eckelman, Matthew J.

2013-06-01

. While average results are valuable in comparing transport modes generally, they are less representative of local planning decisions, where the focus is on understanding the consequences of new infrastructure and how it might affect traffic, community impacts, and environmental aspects going forward. Chester et al (2013) also present their results using consequential LCA, which provides more detailed insights about the marginal effects of the specific rapid bus and light rail lines under study. The trade-offs between the additional resources required to install the public transit infrastructure (the 'resource debt') and the environmental advantages during the operation of these modes can be considered explicitly in terms of environmental impact payback periods, which vary with the type of environmental impact being considered. For example, bus rapid transit incurs a relatively small carbon debt associated with the GHG emissions of manufacturing new buses and installing transit infrastructure and pays this debt off almost immediately, while it takes half a century for the light rail line to pay off the 'smog debt' of its required infrastructure. This payback period approach, ubiquitous in life cycle costing, has been useful for communicating the magnitude of unintended environmental consequences from other resource and land management decisions, e.g., the release of soil carbon from land conversion to bioenergy crops (Fargione et al 2008), and will likely grow in prevalence as consequential LCA is used for decision support. The locations of projected emissions is just as important to decision-making as their magnitudes, as policy-making bodies seek to understand effects in their jurisdictions; however, life cycle impact assessment methods typically aggregate results by impact category rather than by source or sink location. Chester et al (2013) address this issue by providing both local (within Los Angeles) and total emissions results, with accompanying local-only payback

Towards prospective life cycle sustainability analysis: exploring complementarities between social and environmental life cycle assessments for the case of Luxembourg's energy system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rugani, B.; Benetto, E.; Igos, E.; Quinti, G.; Declich, A.; Feudo, F.

2014-01-01

Sustainability typically relies on the durable interaction between humans and the environment. Historically, modelling tools such as environmental-life cycle assessment (E-LCA) have been developed to address the mitigation of environmental impacts generated by human activities. More recently, social-life cycle assessment (S-LCA) methods have been proposed to investigate the social sustainability sphere, looking at the life cycle effects generated by positive or negative pressures on social endpoints (i.e. well-being of stakeholders). Despite this promising added value, however, S-LCA methods still show limitations and challenges to be faced, e.g. regarding the lack of high quality datasets and the implementation of consensual social impact assessment indicators. This paper discusses on the complementarity between S-LCA and E-LCA towards the definition of prospective life cycle sustainability analysis (LCSA) approaches. To this aim, a case study is presented comparing (i) E-LCA results of business-as-usual (BAU) scenarios of energy supply and demand technology changes in Luxembourg, up to 2025, based on economic equilibrium modeling and hybrid life cycle inventories, with (ii) a monetary-based input-output estimation of the related changes in the societal sphere. The results show that environmental and social issues do not follow the same impact trends. While E-LCA outputs highlight contrasting patterns, they do generally underlie a relatively low decrease in the aggregated environmental burdens curve (around 20% of decrease over the single-score impact trend over time). In contrast, social hotspots (identified in S-LCA by specific risk indicators of human rights, worker treatment, poverty, etc.) are typically increasing over time according to the growth of the final energy demand. Overall, the case study allowed identifying possible synergies and tradeoffs related to the impact of projected energy demands in Luxembourg. Despite the studied approach does not fully

Life cycle considerations for improving sustainability assessments in seafood awareness campaigns.

Science.gov (United States)

Pelletier, Nathan; Tyedmers, Peter

2008-11-01

It is widely accepted that improving the sustainability of seafood production requires efforts to reverse declines in global fisheries due to overfishing and to reduce the impacts to host ecosystems from fishing and aquaculture production technologies. Reflective of on-going dialogue amongst participants in an international research project applying Life Cycle Assessment to better understand and manage global salmon production systems, we argue here that such efforts must also address the wider range of biophysical, ecological, and socioeconomic impacts stemming from the material and energetic throughput associated with these industries. This is of particular relevance given the interconnectivity of global environmental change, ocean health, and the viability of seafood production in both fisheries and aquaculture. Although the growing popularity of numerous ecolabeling, certification, and consumer education programs may be making headway in influencing Western consumer perceptions of the relative sustainability of alternative seafood products, we also posit that the efficacy of these initiatives in furthering sustainability objectives is compromised by the use of incomplete criteria. An emerging body of Life Cycle Assessment research of fisheries and aquaculture provides valuable insights into the biophysical dimensions of environmental performance in alternative seafood production and consumption systems, and should be used to inform a more holistic approach to labeling, certifying, and educating for sustainability in seafood production. More research, however, must be undertaken to develop novel techniques for incorporating other critical dimensions, in particular, socioeconomic considerations, into our sustainability decision-making.

DEVELOPMENT OF THE METHOD AND U.S. NORMALIZATION DATABASE FOR LIFE CYCLE IMPACT ASSESSMENT AND SUSTAINABILITY METRICS

Science.gov (United States)

Normalization is an optional step within Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA) that may be used to assist in the interpretation of life cycle inventory data as well as, life cycle impact assessment results. Normalization transforms the magnitude of LCI and LCIA results into relati...

Recommendations for Life Cycle Impact Assessment in the European context - based on existing environmental impact assessment models and factors (International Reference Life Cycle Data System - ILCD handbook)

OpenAIRE

HAUSCHILD Michael; GOEDKOOP Mark; GUINEE Jerome; HEIJUNGS Reinout; HUIJBREGTS Mark; JOLLIET Olivier; MARGNI Manuele; DE SCHRYVER An

2010-01-01

To achieve more sustainable production and consumption patterns, we must consider the environmental implications of the whole supply-chain of products, both goods and services, their use, and waste management, i.e. their entire life cycle from ¿cradle to grave¿. In the Communication on Integrated Product Policy (IPP), (EC, 2003), the European Commission committed to produce a handbook on best practice in Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). The Sustainable Consumption and Production (SCP) Action ...

Bioethanol production from corn stover residues. Process design and Life Cycle Assessment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

De Bari, I.; Dinnino, G.; Braccio, G.

2008-01-01

In this report, the mass and energy balance along with a land-to-wheel Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is described for a corn stover-to-ethanol industrial process assumed to consist of the main technologies being researched at ENEA TRISAIA: pretreatment by steam explosion and enzymatic hydrolysis. The modelled plant has a processing capacity of 60kt/y (dimensioned on realistic supplying basins of residues in Italy); biomass is pre-treated by acid catalyzed-steam explosion; cellulose and hemicelluloses are hydrolyzed and separately fermented; enzymes are on-site produced. The main target was to minimize the consumption of fresh water, enzymes and energy. The results indicate that the production of 1kg bio ethanol (95.4 wt%) requires 3.5 kg biomass dry matter and produces an energy surplus up to 740 Wh. The main purpose of the LCA analysis was to assess the environmental impact of the entire life cycle from the bio ethanol production up to its end-use as E10 blended gasoline. Boustead Model was used as tool to compile the life cycle inventory. The results obtained and discussed in this reports suffer of some limitations deriving from the following main points: some process yields have been extrapolated according to optimistic development scenarios; the energy and steam recovery could be lower than that projected because of lacks in the real systems; water recycle could be limited by the yeast tolerance toward the potential accumulation of toxic compounds. Nevertheless, the detailed process analysis here provided has its usefulness in: showing the challenging targets (even if they are ambitious) to bet on to make the integrated process feasible; driving the choice of the most suitable technologies to bypass some process bottlenecks [it

Monetary valuation in Life Cycle Assessment

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Pizzol, Massimo; Weidema, Bo Pedersen; Brandão, Miguel

2015-01-01

different impacts and/or with other economic costs and benefits. For this reason, monetary valuation has a great potential to be applied also in Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), especially in the weighting phase. However, several challenges limit its diffusion in the field, which resulted in only a few......Monetary valuation is the practice of converting measures of social and biophysical impacts into monetary units and is used to determine the economic value of non-market goods, i.e. goods for which no market exists. It is applied in cost benefit analysis to enable the cross-comparison between...

Developing Asset Life Cycle Management capabilities through the implementation of Asset Life Cycle Plans – an Action Research project

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Ruitenburg, Richard; Braaksma, Anne Johannes Jan

2017-01-01

Asset Life Cycle Management is a strategic approach to managing physical assets over their complete life cycle. However, the literature and the recent ISO 55,000 standard do not offer guidance as to how to develop such an approach. This paper investigates the main capabilities for Asset Life Cycle

Life Cycle Assessment of Daugavgriva Waste Water Treatment Plant

OpenAIRE

Romagnoli, F; Fraga Sampaio, F; Blumberga, D

2009-01-01

This paper presents the assessment of the environmental impacts caused by the treatment of Riga’s waste water in the Daugavgriva plant with biogas energy cogeneration through the life cycle assessment (LCA). The LCA seems to be a good tool to assess and evaluate the most serious environmental impacts of a facility The results showed clearly that the impact category contributing the most to the total impact –eutrophicationcomes from the wastewater treatment stage. Cl...

Life cycle assessment of ocean energy technologies

OpenAIRE

UIHLEIN ANDREAS

2015-01-01

Purpose Oceans offer a vast amount of renewable energy. Tidal and wave energy devices are currently the most advanced conduits of ocean energy. To date, only a few life cycle assessments for ocean energy have been carried out for ocean energy. This study analyses ocean energy devices, including all technologies currently being proposed, in order to gain a better understanding of their environmental impacts and explore how they can contribute to a more sustainable energy supply. Methods...

Accident risk-based life cycle assessment methodology for green and safe fuel selection

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Khakzad, Sina; Khan, Faisal; Abbassi, Rouzbeh; Khakzad Rostami, N.

2017-01-01

Using the emissions produced during the entire life-cycle of a fuel or a product, Life-cycle assessment (LCA) is an effective technique widely used to estimate environmental impacts. However, most of the conventional LCA methods consider the impacts of voluntary releases such as discharged toxic

Life cycle assessment of electricity generation in Mexico

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Santoyo-Castelazo, E.; Gujba, H.; Azapagic, A.

2011-01-01

This paper presents for the first time a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) study of electricity generation in Mexico. The electricity mix in Mexico is dominated by fossil fuels, which contribute around 79% to the total primary energy; renewable energies contribute 16.5% (hydropower 13.5%, geothermal 3% and wind 0.02%) and the remaining 4.8% is from nuclear power. The LCA results show that 225 TWh of electricity generate about 129 million tonnes of CO 2 eq. per year, of which the majority (87%) is due to the combustion of fossil fuels. The renewables and nuclear contribute only 1.1% to the total CO 2 eq. Most of the other LCA impacts are also attributed to the fossil fuel options. The results have been compared with values reported for other countries with similar electricity mix, including Italy, Portugal and the UK, showing good agreement. -- Highlights: → This paper presents for the first time a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) study of electricity generation in Mexico. → 129 million tonnes of CO 2 eq. per year are emitted from 225 TWh of electricity generated per year of which 87% is due to the combustion of fossil fuels. → Coal technologies generate 1094 g CO 2 eq./kWh, heavy fuel oil 964 g CO 2 eq./kWh, and gas 468 g CO 2 eq./kWh; by contrast, nuclear and hydro emit 12 g CO 2 eq./kWh. → Heavy fuel oil contributes most to the life cycle environmental impacts (59-97%). → The results show good agreement with values reported for other countries with similar electricity mix, including Italy, Portugal and the UK.

Normalisation and weighting in life cycle assessment: quo vadis?

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Pizzol, Massimo; Laurent, Alexis; Sala, Serenella

2017-01-01

Purpose: Building on the rhetoric question “quo vadis?” (literally “Where are you going?”), this article critically investigates the state of the art of normalisation and weighting approaches within life cycle assessment. It aims at identifying purposes, current practises, pros and cons, as well...

Methods for global sensitivity analysis in life cycle assessment

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Groen, Evelyne A.; Bokkers, Eddy; Heijungs, Reinout; Boer, de Imke J.M.

2017-01-01

Purpose: Input parameters required to quantify environmental impact in life cycle assessment (LCA) can be uncertain due to e.g. temporal variability or unknowns about the true value of emission factors. Uncertainty of environmental impact can be analysed by means of a global sensitivity analysis to

Assessment of the environmental impacts deriving from the life cycle of a typical solar water heater

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

G. Gaidajis

2014-01-01

Full Text Available According to life cycle thinking, the environmental burden deriving from different life cycle stages of a product or a system, such as manufacturing, transportation, maintenance and landfilling should be taken into consideration while assessing its environmental performance. In that aspect, the environmental impacts deriving from the life cycle of a typical solar water heater (SWH in Greece are analyzed and assessed with the application of relative life cycle assessment (LCA software in this study. In order to examine various impact categories such as global warming, ozone layer depletion, ecotoxicity and so forth, the IMPACT2002+ method is applied. The aim of this study is to examine the life cycle stages, processes and materials that significantly affect the system under examination and to provide a discussion regarding the environmental friendliness of solar water heaters.

Comparative evaluation of life cycle assessment models for solid waste management

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Winkler, Joerg; Bilitewski, Bernd

2007-01-01

This publication compares a selection of six different models developed in Europe and America by research organisations, industry associations and governmental institutions. The comparison of the models reveals the variations in the results and the differences in the conclusions of an LCA study done with these models. The models are compared by modelling a specific case - the waste management system of Dresden, Germany - with each model and an in-detail comparison of the life cycle inventory results. Moreover, a life cycle impact assessment shows if the LCA results of each model allows for comparable and consecutive conclusions, which do not contradict the conclusions derived from the other models' results. Furthermore, the influence of different level of detail in the life cycle inventory of the life cycle assessment is demonstrated. The model comparison revealed that the variations in the LCA results calculated by the models for the case show high variations and are not negligible. In some cases the high variations in results lead to contradictory conclusions concerning the environmental performance of the waste management processes. The static, linear modelling approach chosen by all models analysed is inappropriate for reflecting actual conditions. Moreover, it was found that although the models' approach to LCA is comparable on a general level, the level of detail implemented in the software tools is very different

Life cycle assessment of village electrification based on straight jatropha oil in Chhattisgarh, India

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Gmuender, Simon Michael; Zah, Rainer; Widmer, Rolf [Technology and Society Lab, Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Testing and Research (EMPA), Ueberlandstr. 129, 8600 Duebendorf (Switzerland); Bhatacharjee, Somnath [Winrock India International, New Delhi (India); Classen, Mischa [First Climate AG, Zuerich (Switzerland); Mukherjee, Prodyut [Sir Dorabji Tata Trust and Allied Trusts, New Delhi (India)

2010-03-15

A decentralized power generation plant fuelled by straight jatropha oil was implemented in 2006 in Ranidhera, Chhattisgarh, India. The goal of this study was to assess the environmental sustainability of that electrification project in order to provide a scientific basis for policy decisions on electrifying remote villages. A full Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) was conducted on jatropha-based rural electrification and then compared with other electrification approaches such as photovoltaic (PV), grid connection and a diesel-fuelled power generator. In summary, the jatropha-based electrification in Ranidhera reduces greenhouse gas emissions over the full life cycle by a factor of 7 compared to a diesel generator or grid connection. The environmental performance is only slightly improved, mainly due to the high air pollution from pre-heating the jatropha seeds. With additional measures oil extraction and overall efficiency could be further improved. However, environmental benefits can only be achieved if jatropha is cultivated on marginal land and land use competition can be excluded. Under these conditions, jatropha-based electricity generation might be a useful alternative to other renewable electrification options, as the technology is very sturdy and can be maintained even in remote and highly under-developed regions. (author)

Life cycle assessment of the application of nanoclays in wire coating

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tellaetxe, A; Blázquez, M; Unzueta, I; Arteche, A; Egizabal, A; Ermini, V; Rose, J; Chaurand, P

2012-01-01

A life cycle assessment (LCA) is carried out to compare nanoclay-reinforced polymer wire coatings with conventional ones. While the conventional wire coatings contain standard halogen free retardants, in reinforced coatings, montmorillonite (nanoclay) is incorporated into electric cable linings as a rheological agent for an increased resistance to fire. In addition, a reduced load of standard halogen free retardants is obtained. The synergistic effect of the montmorillonite on traditional flame retardant additives (by the formation of a three-dimensional char network) can lead to a revolution in wire production. The application of nanoclays contributes also to anti-dripping effect and flexibility increase. Some producers have already started commercializing wire with nanotechnology-based coating; in the short term the use of nanoclay in wire coating production will probably reach a significant market share replacing traditional formulations. The main aim of this study is to compare the environmental impacts along the life cycle of a traditional wire coating (mineral flame retardants like ATH or MDH in a polymer matrix) with the nanoclay-reinforced wire coating, where the montmorillonite replaces a low percentage of the mineral flame retardant. The system boundaries of the study include the following unit processes: nanoclay production, thermoplastic material and mineral flame retardants production, cable coating manufacturing by extrusion and different end of life scenarios (recycling, incineration and landfill disposal). Whereas nanoreinforced composites have shown and increased fire retardance, the addition of nanomaterials seems to have no significant relevance in the environmental assessment. However, the lack of nano-specific characterization factors for nanomaterials and emission rates associated to the different life cycle stages -mainly in the extrusion and use phase, where accidental combustions can take place- still remains a challenge for realistic life

Life cycle impact assessment of bio-based plastics from sugarcane ethanol

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Tsiropoulos, I.; Faaij, A. P C; Lundquist, L.; Schenker, U.; Briois, J. F.; Patel, M. K.

2015-01-01

The increasing production of bio-based plastics calls for thorough environmental assessments. Using life cycle assessment, this study compares European supply of fully bio-based high-density polyethylene and partially bio-based polyethylene terephthalate from Brazilian and Indian sugarcane ethanol

Life-cycle design for sustainable architecture

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Francesca Thiébat

2013-05-01

Full Text Available Sustainability in architecture should involve environmental and social aspects and also economic aspects. However, in a design process budget issues usually outweigh ecological aspects. How can we then drive clients and builders to put more socially responsible buildings on the market that do not exceed the fixed budget but are environmentally friendly? This paper propose an economic and environmental assessment tool to aid private or public building designers and owners to find the global sustainability value of a green building within a life cycle perspective. Sustainable life cycle tools for buildings design and construction help to achieve successfully integrated architecture. The research here presented proposes a new point of view of the “time-cost-quality triangle” of Project Management, by introducing three further aspects: environment, society and aesthetics.

Life-cycle cost assessment of seismically base-isolated structures in nuclear power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wang, Hao; Weng, Dagen; Lu, Xilin; Lu, Liang

2013-01-01

Highlights: • The life-cycle cost of seismic base-isolated nuclear power plants is modeled. • The change law of life-cycle cost with seismic fortification intensity is studied. • The initial cost of laminated lead rubber bearings can be expressed as the function of volume. • The initial cost of a damper can be expressed as the function of its maximum displacement and tonnage. • The use of base-isolation can greatly reduce the expected damage cost, which leads to the reduction of the life-cycle cost. -- Abstract: Evaluation of seismically base-isolated structural life-cycle cost is the key problem in performance based seismic design. A method is being introduced to address the life-cycle cost of base-isolated reinforced concrete structures in nuclear power plants. Each composition of life-cycle cost is analyzed including the initial construction cost, the isolators cost and the excepted damage cost over life-cycle of the structure. The concept of seismic intensity is being used to estimate the expected damage cost, greatly simplifying the calculation. Moreover, French Cruas nuclear power plant is employed as an example to assess its life-cycle cost, compared to the cost of non-isolated plant at the same time. The results show that the proposed method is efficient and the expected damage cost is enormously reduced because of the application of isolators, which leads to the reduction of the life-cycle cost of nuclear power plants

Comparative environmental life cycle assessment of composite materials

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

De Vegt, O.M.; Haije, W.G.

1997-12-01

The aim of the present study is to compare and quantify the environmental impact of three rotorblades made of different materials and to establish which stage in the life cycle contributes most. The life cycle of a product can be represented by the production phase, including depletion of raw materials (mining) and production (machining) of products, the utilisation phase, including use of energy, maintenance and cleaning, and the disposal phase, including landfill, incineration, recycling, etc. The environmental impact of a product is not only determined by the materials selected but also by the function of the product itself. E.g. when natural fibres are applied in vehicles as a substitution for metals the environmental impact in the use phase will be reduced due to a lower energy consumption caused by a lower car weight. The influence on the environmental impact of the production phase must also be taken into account. The material relation between the production phase and the use phase and the disposal phase is complicated. In general the lifetime of a product use phase can be extended (positive aspect), e.g. by application of a coating onto the surface. Due to the coating the product can not easily be recycled, which is a negative aspect. The three types of composites used in the rotorblade of the wind energy converter considered in this study are: flaxfibre reinforced epoxy, carbon fibre reinforced epoxy and glassfibre reinforced polyester. The assessment is performed using the computer program Simapro 3, which is based on the Dutch CML method for the environmental life-cycle assessment of products using the Eco-Indicator 95 evaluation method. The CML method defines five phases for an LCA: goal definition and scoping; inventory; classification; impact assessment; and improvement analysis. The improvement analysis is not part of this work. Performing an LCA is a time-consuming process due to the detailed information that is required. In chapter five some

Life cycle assessment of a floating offshore wind turbine

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Weinzettel, Jan [Department of Electrotechnology, Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Czech Technical University in Prague, Technicka 2, Praha 166 27 (Czech Republic); Charles University in Prague Environment Center, U Krize 8, Prague 158 00 (Czech Republic); Reenaas, Marte; Solli, Christian [Industrial Ecology Programme, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), 7491 Trondheim (Norway); Hertwich, Edgar G. [Industrial Ecology Programme, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), 7491 Trondheim (Norway); Department of Energy and Process Engineering, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), 7491 Trondheim (Norway)

2009-03-15

A development in wind energy technology towards higher nominal power of the wind turbines is related to the shift of the turbines to better wind conditions. After the shift from onshore to offshore areas, there has been an effort to move further from the sea coast to the deep water areas, which requires floating windmills. Such a concept brings additional environmental impact through higher material demand. To evaluate additional environmental burdens and to find out whether they can be rebalanced or even offset by better wind conditions, a prospective life cycle assessment (LCA) study of one floating concept has been performed and the results are presented in this paper. A comparison with existing LCA studies of conventional offshore wind power and electricity from a natural gas combined cycle is presented. The results indicate similar environmental impacts of electricity production using floating wind power plants as using non-floating offshore wind power plants. The most important stage in the life cycle of the wind power plants is the production of materials. Credits that are connected to recycling these materials at the end-of-life of the power plant are substantial. (author)

Global warming implications of facade parameters: A life cycle assessment of residential buildings in Bahrain

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Radhi, Hassan, E-mail: h_alradhi@yahoo.com [Global Engineering Bureau, P.O Box 33130, Manama, Kingdom of Bahrain (Bahrain); Sharples, Stephen, E-mail: steve.sharples@liverpool.ac.uk [School of Architecture, University of Liverpool (United Kingdom)

2013-01-15

On a global scale, the Gulf Corporation Council Countries (GCCC), including Bahrain, are amongst the top countries in terms of carbon dioxide emissions per capita. Building authority in Bahrain has set a target of 40% reduction of electricity consumption and associated CO{sub 2} emissions to be achieved by using facade parameters. This work evaluates how the life cycle CO{sub 2} emissions of buildings are affected by facade parameters. The main focus is placed on direct and indirect CO{sub 2} emissions from three contributors, namely, chemical reactions during production processes (Pco{sub 2}), embodied energy (Eco{sub 2}) and operational energy (OPco{sub 2}). By means of the life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology, it has been possible to show that the greatest environmental impact occurs during the operational phase (80-90%). However, embodied CO{sub 2} emissions are an important factor that needs to be brought into the systems used for appraisal of projects, and hence into the design decisions made in developing projects. The assessment shows that masonry blocks are responsible for 70-90% of the total CO{sub 2} emissions of facade construction, mainly due to their physical characteristics. The highest Pco{sub 2} emissions factors are those of window elements, particularly aluminium frames. However, their contribution of CO{sub 2} emissions depends largely on the number and size of windows. Each square metre of glazing is able to increase the total CO{sub 2} emissions by almost 30% when compared with the same areas of opaque walls. The use of autoclaved aerated concrete (AAC) walls reduces the total life cycle CO{sub 2} emissions by almost 5.2% when compared with ordinary walls, while the use of thermal insulation with concrete wall reduces CO{sub 2} emissions by 1.2%. The outcome of this work offers to the building industry a reliable indicator of the environmental impact of residential facade parameters. - Highlights: Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer Life cycle

Research Needs and Challenges from Science to Decision Support. Lesson Learnt from the Development of the International Reference Life Cycle Data System (ILCD) Recommendations for Life Cycle Impact Assessment

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sala, Serenella; Pant, Rana; Hauschild, Michael Zwicky

2012-01-01

Environmental implications of the whole supply-chain of products, both goods and services, their use, and waste management, i.e., their entire life cycle from "cradle to grave" have to be considered to achieve more sustainable production and consumption patterns. Progress toward environmental...... sustainability requires enhancing the methodologies for quantitative, integrated environmental assessment and promoting the use of these methodologies in different domains. In the context of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of products, in recent years, several methodologies have been developed for Life Cycle Impact...... Assessment (LCIA). The Joint Research Center of the European Commission (EC-JRC) led a "science to decision support" process which resulted in the International Reference Life Cycle Data System (ILCD) Handbook, providing guidelines to the decision and application of methods for LCIA. The Handbook...

Environmental life cycle assessment of water supply in South Africa ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

The life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) phase of LCAs evaluates the ... considered where water is used in the manufacturing sector of South Africa, and to identify ... The boosting requirements attribute most to the electricity dependency of the ...

Life Cycle Assessment to Municipal Wastewater Treatment Plant

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Garcia, J. s.; Herrera, I.; Rodriguez, A.

2011-01-01

The evaluation was done at a Municipal Wastewater Treatment Plant (MWTP), through the application of the methodology of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) performed by using a commercial tool called SIMAPRO. The objective of this study was to apply Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) in two systems: municipal wastewater effluent without treatment and Wastewater Treatment Plant (WTP) that is operating in poor condition and has a direct discharge to a natural body, which is a threat to the environment. A LCA was done using SIMAPRO 7, in order to determine the environmental impact in each scenery was assessed, a comparison of the impacts and propose improvements to decrease, following the steps this methodology and according to the respective standardized normative (ISO 14040/ ISO 14044). In this study, most of used data have been reported by the plant from early 2010 and some data from literature. We identified the environmental impacts generated by the treatment, making emphasis on those related to the subsequent use of the water body receiving the discharge, such as eutrophication (near to 15% reduction). Likewise, a comparative analysis between the impacts in the two systems, with and without treatment by analyzing the variation in the impact categories studied. Finally within this work, alternatives of improvements, in order to reduce the identified and quantified impacts are proposed. (Author) 33 refs.

Comparative alternative materials assessment to screen toxicity hazards in the life cycle of CIGS thin film photovoltaics

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Eisenberg, Daniel A.; Yu, Mengjing; Lam, Carl W. [University of California, Davis, 1 Shields Avenue, Davis, CA 95616 (United States); Ogunseitan, Oladele A. [University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA 92697 (United States); Schoenung, Julie M., E-mail: jmschoenung@ucdavis.edu [University of California, Davis, 1 Shields Avenue, Davis, CA 95616 (United States)

2013-09-15

Highlights: • Comparative alternatives assessment of thin film manufacturing technologies. • Development of chemical alternatives assessment in a life cycle context. • Screening of manufacturing and solar cell hazardous substances simultaneously. -- Abstract: Copper–indium–gallium–selenium–sulfide (CIGS) thin film photovoltaics are increasingly penetrating the market supply for consumer solar panels. Although CIGS is attractive for producing less greenhouse gas emissions than fossil-fuel based energy sources, CIGS manufacturing processes and solar cell devices use hazardous materials that should be carefully considered in evaluating and comparing net environmental benefits of energy products. Through this research, we present a case study on the toxicity hazards associated with alternative materials selection for CIGS manufacturing. We applied two numeric models, The Green Screen for Safer Chemicals™ and the Toxic Potential Indicator. To improve the sensitivity of the model outputs, we developed a novel, life cycle thinking based hazard assessment method that facilitates the projection of hazards throughout material life cycles. Our results show that the least hazardous CIGS solar cell device and manufacturing protocol consist of a titanium substrate, molybdenum metal back electrode, CuInS{sub 2} p-type absorber deposited by spray pyrolysis, ZnS buffer deposited by spray ion layer gas reduction, ZnO:Ga transparent conducting oxide (TCO) deposited by sputtering, and the encapsulant polydimethylsiloxane.

Environmental impacts of lighting technologies - Life cycle assessment and sensitivity analysis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Welz, Tobias; Hischier, Roland; Hilty, Lorenz M.

2011-01-01

With two regulations, 244/2009 and 245/2009, the European Commission recently put into practice the EuP Directive in the area of lighting devices, aiming to improve energy efficiency in the domestic lighting sector. This article presents a comprehensive life cycle assessment comparison of four different lighting technologies: the tungsten lamp, the halogen lamp, the conventional fluorescent lamp and the compact fluorescent lamp. Taking advantage of the most up-to-date life cycle inventory database available (ecoinvent data version 2.01), all life cycle phases were assessed and the sensitivity of the results for varying assumptions analysed: different qualities of compact fluorescent lamps (production phase), different electricity mixes (use phase), and end-of-life scenarios for WEEE recycling versus municipal solid waste incineration (disposal phase). A functional unit of 'one hour of lighting' was defined and the environmental burdens for the whole life cycle for all four lamp types were calculated, showing a clearly lower impact for the two gas-discharge lamps, i.e. the fluorescent and the compact fluorescent lamp. Differences in the product quality of the compact fluorescent lamps reveal to have only a very small effect on the overall environmental performance of this lamp type; a decline of the actual life time of this lamp type doesn't result in a change of the rank order of the results of the here examined four lamp types. It was also shown that the environmental break-even point of the gas-discharge lamps is reached long before the end of their expected life-span. All in all, it can be concluded that a change from today's tungsten lamp technology to a low-energy-consuming technology such as the compact fluorescent lamp results in a substantial environmental benefit.

Life cycle assessment of crystalline photovoltaics in the Swiss ecoinvent database

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Jungbluth, Niels [ESU-services, Environmental Consultancy for Business and Authorities, Uster (Switzerland)

2005-07-01

This paper describes the life cycle assessment (LCA) for photovoltaic (PV) power plants in the new ecoinvent database. Twelve different, grid-connected photovoltaic systems were studied for the situation in Switzerland in the year 2000. They are manufactured as panels or laminates, from monocrystalline or polycrystalline silicon, installed on facades, slanted or flat roofs, and have 3 kW{sub p} capacity. The process data include quartz reduction, silicon purification, wafer, panel and laminate production, mounting structure, 30 years operation and dismantling. In contrast to existing LCA studies, country-specific electricity mixes have been considered in the life cycle inventory (LCI) in order to reflect the present market situation. The new approach for the allocation procedure in the inventory of silicon purification, as a critical issue of former studies, is discussed in detail. The LCI for photovoltaic electricity shows that each production stage is important for certain elementary flows. A life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) shows that there are important environmental impacts not directly related to the energy use (e.g., process emissions of NO{sub x} from wafer etching). The assumption for the used supply energy mixes is important for the overall LCIA results of different production stages. The presented life cycle inventories for photovoltaic power plants are representative for newly constructed plants and for the average photovoltaic mix in Switzerland in the year 2000. A scenario for a future technology (until 2010) helps to assess the relative influence of technology improvements for some processes. The very detailed ecoinvent database forms a good basis for similar studies in other European countries or for other types of solar cells. (Author)

Metadata Life Cycles, Use Cases and Hierarchies

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ted Habermann

2018-05-01

Full Text Available The historic view of metadata as “data about data” is expanding to include data about other items that must be created, used, and understood throughout the data and project life cycles. In this context, metadata might better be defined as the structured and standard part of documentation, and the metadata life cycle can be described as the metadata content that is required for documentation in each phase of the project and data life cycles. This incremental approach to metadata creation is similar to the spiral model used in software development. Each phase also has distinct users and specific questions to which they need answers. In many cases, the metadata life cycle involves hierarchies where latter phases have increased numbers of items. The relationships between metadata in different phases can be captured through structure in the metadata standard, or through conventions for identifiers. Metadata creation and management can be streamlined and simplified by re-using metadata across many records. Many of these ideas have been developed to various degrees in several Geoscience disciplines and are being used in metadata for documenting the integrated life cycle of environmental research in the Arctic, including projects, collection sites, and datasets.

Life Cycle Assessment Framework for Indoor Emissions of Synthetic Nanoparticles

Science.gov (United States)

Life-Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a well-established method to evaluate impacts of chemicals on the environment and human health along the lifespan of products. However, the increasingly produced and applied nanomaterials (defined as one dimension <100 nm) show particular characteri...

Life cycle assessment of biofuels from an integrated Brazilian algae-sugarcane biorefinery

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Souza, Simone P.; Gopal, Anand R.; Seabra, Joaquim E.A.

2015-01-01

Sugarcane ethanol biorefineries in Brazil produce carbon dioxide, electricity and heat as byproducts. These are essential inputs for algae biodiesel production. In this paper, we assessed ethanol's life cycle greenhouse gas emissions and fossil energy use produced in an integrated sugarcane and algae biorefinery where biodiesel replaces petroleum diesel for all agricultural operations. Carbon dioxide from cane juice fermentation is used as the carbon source for algae cultivation, and sugarcane bagasse is the sole source of energy for the entire facility. Glycerin produced from the biodiesel plant is consumed by algae during the mixotrophic growth phase. We assessed the uncertainties through a detailed Monte-Carlo analysis. We found that this integrated system can improve both the life cycle greenhouse gas emissions and the fossil energy use of sugarcane ethanol by around 10% and 50%, respectively, compared to a traditional Brazilian sugarcane ethanol distillery. - Highlights: • A high diesel consumption is associated to the ethanol sugarcane life-cycle. • Sugarcane industry can provide sources of carbon and energy for the algae growing. • The sugarcane-algae integration can improve the ethanol life-cycle performance. • This integration is a promising pathway for the deployment of algae biodiesel. • There are still significant techno-economic barriers associated with algae biodiesel

Life Cycle Assessment of Solar Photovoltaic Microgrid Systems in Off-Grid Communities.

Science.gov (United States)

Bilich, Andrew; Langham, Kevin; Geyer, Roland; Goyal, Love; Hansen, James; Krishnan, Anjana; Bergesen, Joseph; Sinha, Parikhit

2017-01-17

Access to a reliable source of electricity creates significant benefits for developing communities. Smaller versions of electricity grids, known as microgrids, have been developed as a solution to energy access problems. Using attributional life cycle assessment, this project evaluates the environmental and energy impacts of three photovoltiac (PV) microgrids compared to other energy options for a model village in Kenya. When normalized per kilowatt hour of electricity consumed, PV microgrids, particularly PV-battery systems, have lower impacts than other energy access solutions in climate change, particulate matter, photochemical oxidants, and terrestrial acidification. When compared to small-scale diesel generators, PV-battery systems save 94-99% in the above categories. When compared to the marginal electricity grid in Kenya, PV-battery systems save 80-88%. Contribution analysis suggests that electricity and primary metal use during component, particularly battery, manufacturing are the largest contributors to overall PV-battery microgrid impacts. Accordingly, additional savings could be seen from changing battery manufacturing location and ensuring end of life recycling. Overall, this project highlights the potential for PV microgrids to be feasible, adaptable, long-term energy access solutions, with health and environmental advantages compared to traditional electrification options.

Complementary use of life cycle assessment and risk assessment for engineered nanomaterials: Lessons learned from chemicals?

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Grieger, Khara D.; Laurent, Alexis; Miseljic, Mirko

2013-01-01

Successful strategies to handle the potential health and environmental risks of engineered nanomaterials (ENM) often rely upon the well-established frameworks of life cycle assessment (LCA) and risk assessment (RA). However, current research and specific guidance on how to actually apply these two...... scientific research efforts have taken into account some key lessons learned from past experiences with chemicals at the same time that many key challenges remain to applying these frameworks to ENM. In that setting, two main proposed approaches to use LCA and RA together for ENM are identified: i) LC......-based RA, similar to traditional RA applied in a life cycle perspective, and ii) RA-complemented LCA, similar to conventional LCA supplemented by RA in specific life cycle steps. This study finds that these two approaches for using LCA and RA together for ENM are similar to those made for chemicals...

Does It Have a Life Cycle?

Science.gov (United States)

Keeley, Page

2010-01-01

If life continues from generation to generation, then all plants and animals must go through a life cycle, even though it may be different from organism to organism. Is this what students have "learned," or do they have their own private conceptions about life cycles? The formative assessment probe "Does It Have a Life Cycle?" reveals some…

Life cycle assessment of a commercial rainwater harvesting system compared with a municipal water supply system

Science.gov (United States)

Building upon previously published life cycle assessment (LCA) methodologies, we conducted an LCA of a commercial rainwater harvesting (RWH) system and compared it to a municipal water supply (MWS) system adapted to Washington, D.C. Eleven life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) indi...

Life-cycle assessment of computational logic produced from 1995 through 2010

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Boyd, S B; Horvath, A; Dornfeld, D A

2010-01-01

Determination of the life-cycle environmental and human health impacts of semiconductor logic is essential to a better understanding of the role information technology can play in achieving energy efficiency or global warming potential reduction goals. This study provides a life-cycle assessment for digital logic chips over seven technology generations, spanning from 1995 through 2010. Environmental indicators include global warming potential, acidification, eutrophication, ground-level ozone (smog) formation, potential human cancer and non-cancer health effects, ecotoxicity and water use. While impacts per device area related to fabrication infrastructure and use-phase electricity have increased steadily, those due to transportation and fabrication direct emissions have fallen as a result of changes in process technology, device and wafer sizes and yields over the generations. Electricity, particularly in the use phase, and direct emissions from fabrication are the most important contributors to life-cycle impacts. Despite the large quantities of water used in fabrication, across the life cycle, the largest fraction of water is consumed in generation of electricity for use-phase power. Reducing power consumption in the use phase is the most effective way to limit impacts, particularly for the more recent generations of logic.

Rethinking the area of protection "natural resources" in life cycle assessment.

Science.gov (United States)

Dewulf, Jo; Benini, Lorenzo; Mancini, Lucia; Sala, Serenella; Blengini, Gian Andrea; Ardente, Fulvio; Recchioni, Marco; Maes, Joachim; Pant, Rana; Pennington, David

2015-05-05

Life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) in classical life cycle assessment (LCA) aims at analyzing potential impacts of products and services typically on three so-called areas of protection (AoPs): Natural Environment, Human Health, and Natural Resources. This paper proposes an elaboration of the AoP Natural Resources. It starts with analyzing different perspectives on Natural Resources as they are somehow sandwiched in between the Natural Environment (their cradle) and the human-industrial environment (their application). Reflecting different viewpoints, five perspectives are developed with the suggestion to select three in function of classical LCA. They result in three safeguard subjects: the Asset of Natural Resources, their Provisioning Capacity, and their role in Global Functions. Whereas the Provisioning Capacity is fully in function of humans, the global functions go beyond provisioning as they include nonprovisioning functions for humans and regulating and maintenance services for the globe as a whole, following the ecosystem services framework. A fourth and fifth safeguard subject has been identified: recognizing the role Natural Resources for human welfare, either specifically as building block in supply chains of products and services as such, either with or without their functions beyond provisioning. But as these are far broader as they in principle should include characterization of mechanisms within the human industrial society, they are considered as subjects for an integrated sustainability assessment (LCSA: life cycle sustainability assessment), that is, incorporating social, economic and environmental issues.

Representativeness of environmental impact assessment methods regarding Life Cycle Inventories.

Science.gov (United States)

Esnouf, Antoine; Latrille, Éric; Steyer, Jean-Philippe; Helias, Arnaud

2018-04-15

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) characterises all the exchanges between human driven activities and the environment, thus representing a powerful approach for tackling the environmental impact of a production system. However, LCA practitioners must still choose the appropriate Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA) method to use and are expected to justify this choice: impacts should be relevant facing the concerns of the study and misrepresentations should be avoided. This work aids practitioners in evaluating the adequacy between the assessed environmental issues and studied production system. Based on a geometrical standpoint of LCA framework, Life Cycle Inventories (LCIs) and LCIA methods were localized in the vector space spanned by elementary flows. A proximity measurement, the Representativeness Index (RI), is proposed to explore the relationship between those datasets (LCIs and LCIA methods) through an angular distance. RIs highlight LCIA methods that measure issues for which the LCI can be particularly harmful. A high RI indicates a close proximity between a LCI and a LCIA method, and highlights a better representation of the elementary flows by the LCIA method. To illustrate the benefits of the proposed approach, representativeness of LCIA methods regarding four electricity mix production LCIs from the ecoinvent database are presented. RIs for 18 LCIA methods (accounting for a total of 232 impact categories) were calculated on these LCIs and the relevance of the methods are discussed. RIs prove to be a criterion for distinguishing the different LCIA methods and could thus be employed by practitioners for deeper interpretations of LCIA results. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Impact assessment modelling of matter-less stressors in the context of Life Cycle Assessment

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Cucurachi, Stefano

2014-01-01

In the last three decades, the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) framework has grown to establish itself as the leading tool for the assessment of the environmental impacts of product systems.LCA studies are now conducted globally both in and outside the academia and also used as a basis for policy

Life cycle assessment study of a Chinese desktop personal computer.

Science.gov (United States)

Duan, Huabo; Eugster, Martin; Hischier, Roland; Streicher-Porte, Martin; Li, Jinhui

2009-02-15

Associated with the tremendous prosperity in world electronic information and telecommunication industry, there continues to be an increasing awareness of the environmental impacts related to the accelerating mass production, electricity use, and waste management of electronic and electric products (e-products). China's importance as both a consumer and supplier of e-products has grown at an unprecedented pace in recent decade. Hence, this paper aims to describe the application of life cycle assessment (LCA) to investigate the environmental performance of Chinese e-products from a global level. A desktop personal computer system has been selected to carry out a detailed and modular LCA which follows the ISO 14040 series. The LCA is constructed by SimaPro software version 7.0 and expressed with the Eco-indicator'99 life cycle impact assessment method. For a sensitivity analysis of the overall LCA results, the so-called CML method is used in order to estimate the influence of the choice of the assessment method on the result. Life cycle inventory information is complied by ecoinvent 1.3 databases, combined with literature and field investigations on the present Chinese situation. The established LCA study shows that that the manufacturing and the use of such devices are of the highest environmental importance. In the manufacturing of such devices, the integrated circuits (ICs) and the Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) are those parts contributing most to the impact. As no other aspects are taken into account during the use phase, the impact is due to the way how the electricity is produced. The final process steps--i.e. the end of life phase--lead to a clear environmental benefit if a formal and modern, up-to-date technical system is assumed, like here in this study.

Life cycle assessment study of a Chinese desktop personal computer

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Duan Huabo; Eugster, Martin; Hischier, Roland; Streicher-Porte, Martin; Li Jinhui

2009-01-01

Associated with the tremendous prosperity in world electronic information and telecommunication industry, there continues to be an increasing awareness of the environmental impacts related to the accelerating mass production, electricity use, and waste management of electronic and electric products (e-products). China's importance as both a consumer and supplier of e-products has grown at an unprecedented pace in recent decade. Hence, this paper aims to describe the application of life cycle assessment (LCA) to investigate the environmental performance of Chinese e-products from a global level. A desktop personal computer system has been selected to carry out a detailed and modular LCA which follows the ISO 14040 series. The LCA is constructed by SimaPro software version 7.0 and expressed with the Eco-indicator'99 life cycle impact assessment method. For a sensitivity analysis of the overall LCA results, the so-called CML method is used in order to estimate the influence of the choice of the assessment method on the result. Life cycle inventory information is complied by ecoinvent 1.3 databases, combined with literature and field investigations on the present Chinese situation. The established LCA study shows that that the manufacturing and the use of such devices are of the highest environmental importance. In the manufacturing of such devices, the integrated circuits (ICs) and the Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) are those parts contributing most to the impact. As no other aspects are taken into account during the use phase, the impact is due to the way how the electricity is produced. The final process steps - i.e. the end of life phase - lead to a clear environmental benefit if a formal and modern, up-to-date technical system is assumed, like here in this study

Accounting of media conditions in the Life Cycle Impact Assessment of Metals on Aquatic Ecosystems

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Birkved, Morten; Payet, Jerome

2003-01-01

Impact from metals play a major role in all Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA) studies. Nevertheless, LCIA methods are typically not adapted for such compounds ignoring problems of speciation and bioavailability. Current uncertainty on metal toxicity estimates are on average twice as high...... of the influence of media condition on the toxicity : Partial Least Square projection to latent Structure Regression (PLSR) was carried out to estimate the relative variable importance and linear regression was used to, identify the relation between media parameters the response of Daphnia magna....

Improving Life-Cycle Cost Management of Spacecraft Missions

Science.gov (United States)

Clardy, Dennon

2010-01-01

This presentation will explore the results of a recent NASA Life-Cycle Cost study and how project managers can use the findings and recommendations to improve planning and coordination early in the formulation cycle and avoid common pitfalls resulting in cost overruns. The typical NASA space science mission will exceed both the initial estimated and the confirmed life-cycle costs by the end of the mission. In a fixed-budget environment, these overruns translate to delays in starting or launching future missions, or in the worst case can lead to cancelled missions. Some of these overruns are due to issues outside the control of the project; others are due to the unpredictable problems (unknown unknowns) that can affect any development project. However, a recent study of life-cycle cost growth by the Discovery and New Frontiers Program Office identified a number of areas that are within the scope of project management to address. The study also found that the majority of the underlying causes for cost overruns are embedded in the project approach during the formulation and early design phases, but the actual impacts typically are not experienced until late in the project life cycle. Thus, project management focus in key areas such as integrated schedule development, management structure and contractor communications processes, heritage and technology assumptions, and operations planning, can be used to validate initial cost assumptions and set in place management processes to avoid the common pitfalls resulting in cost overruns.

Life cycle assessment of energy consumption and environmental emissions for cornstalk-based ethyl levulinate

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wang, Zhiwei; Li, Zaifeng; Lei, Tingzhou; Yang, Miao; Qi, Tian; Lin, Lu; Xin, Xiaofei; Ajayebi, Atta; Yang, Yantao; He, Xiaofeng; Yan, Xiaoyu

2016-01-01

Highlights: • The first LCA of cornstalk-based ethyl levulinate. • Life cycle energy consumption and environmental emissions were evaluated. • Detailed foreground data from a demonstration project in China was used. • Criteria emissions in the combustion stage were based on engine tests. • Sensitivity analysis was performed based on different cornstalk prices. - Abstract: This study analysed the sustainability of fuel-ethyl levulinate (EL) production along with furfural, as a by-product, from cornstalk in China. A life cycle assessment (LCA) was conducted using the SimaPro software to evaluate the energy consumption (EC), greenhouse gas (GHG) and criteria emissions, from cornstalk growth to EL utilisation. The total life cycle EC was found to be 4.54 MJ/MJ EL, of which 94.7% was biomass energy. EC in the EL production stage was the highest, accounting for 96.8% of total EC. Fossil EC in this stage was estimated to be 0.095 MJ/MJ, which also represents the highest fossil EC throughout the life cycle (39.5% of the total). The ratio of biomass to fossil EC over the life cycle was 17.9, indicating good utilisation of renewable energy in cornstalk-based EL production. The net life cycle GHG emissions were 96.6 g CO_2-eq/MJ. The EL production stage demonstrated the highest GHG emissions, representing 53.4% of the total positive amount. Criteria emissions of carbon monoxide (CO) and particulates ⩽10 μm (PM10) showed negative values, of −3.15 and −0.72 g/MJ, respectively. Nitrogen oxides (NO_x) and sulphur dioxide (SO_2) emissions showed positive values of 0.33 and 0.28 g/MJ, respectively, mainly arising from the EL production stage. According to the sensitivity analysis, increasing or removing the cornstalk revenue in the LCA leads to an increase or decrease in the EC and environmental emissions while burning cornstalk directly in the field results in large increases in emissions of NMVOC, CO, NO_x and PM10 but decreases in fossil EC, and SO_2 and GHG

Environmental assessment of waste incineration in a life-cycle-perspective (EASEWASTE).

Science.gov (United States)

Riber, Christian; Bhander, Gurbakhash S; Christensen, Thomas H

2008-02-01

A model for life-cycle assessment of waste incinerators is described and applied to a case study for illustrative purposes. As life-cycle thinking becomes more integrated into waste management, quantitative tools for assessing waste management technologies are needed. The presented model is a module in the life-cycle assessment model EASEWASTE. The module accounts for all uses of materials and energy and credits the incinerator for electricity and heat recovered. The energy recovered is defined by the user as a percentage of the energy produced, calculated on the lower heating value of the wet waste incinerated. Emissions are either process-specific (related to the amount of waste incinerated) or input-specific (related to the composition of the waste incinerated), while mass transfer to solid outputs are governed by transfer coefficients specified by the user. The waste input is defined by 48 material fractions and their chemical composition. The model was used to quantify the environmental performance of the incineration plant in Aarhus, Denmark before and after its upgrading in terms of improved flue gas cleaning and energy recovery. It demonstrated its usefulness in identifying the various processes and substances that contributed to environmental loadings as well as to environmental savings. The model was instrumental in demonstrating the importance of the energy recovery system not only for electricity but also heat from the incinerator.

Hanford River Protection Project Life cycle Cost Modeling Tool to Enhance Mission Planning - 13396

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dunford, Gary; Williams, David; Smith, Rick

2013-01-01

The Life cycle Cost Model (LCM) Tool is an overall systems model that incorporates budget, and schedule impacts for the entire life cycle of the River Protection Project (RPP) mission, and is replacing the Hanford Tank Waste Operations Simulator (HTWOS) model as the foundation of the RPP system planning process. Currently, the DOE frequently requests HTWOS simulations of alternative technical and programmatic strategies for completing the RPP mission. Analysis of technical and programmatic changes can be performed with HTWOS; however, life cycle costs and schedules were previously generated by manual transfer of time-based data from HTWOS to Primavera P6. The LCM Tool automates the preparation of life cycle costs and schedules and is needed to provide timely turnaround capability for RPP mission alternative analyses. LCM is the simulation component of the LCM Tool. The simulation component is a replacement of the HTWOS model with new capability to support life cycle cost modeling. It is currently deployed in G22, but has been designed to work in any full object-oriented language with an extensive feature set focused on networking and cross-platform compatibility. The LCM retains existing HTWOS functionality needed to support system planning and alternatives studies going forward. In addition, it incorporates new functionality, coding improvements that streamline programming and model maintenance, and capability to input/export data to/from the LCM using the LCM Database (LCMDB). The LCM Cost/Schedule (LCMCS) contains cost and schedule data and logic. The LCMCS is used to generate life cycle costs and schedules for waste retrieval and processing scenarios. It uses time-based output data from the LCM to produce the logic ties in Primavera P6 necessary for shifting activities. The LCM Tool is evolving to address the needs of decision makers who want to understand the broad spectrum of risks facing complex organizations like DOE-RPP to understand how near

Hanford River Protection Project Life cycle Cost Modeling Tool to Enhance Mission Planning - 13396

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Dunford, Gary [AEM Consulting, LLC, 1201 Jadwin Avenue, Richland, WA 99352 (United States); Williams, David [WIT, Inc., 11173 Oak Fern Court, San Diego, CA 92131 (United States); Smith, Rick [Knowledge Systems Design, Inc., 13595 Quaker Hill Cross Rd, Nevada City, CA 95959 (United States)

2013-07-01

The Life cycle Cost Model (LCM) Tool is an overall systems model that incorporates budget, and schedule impacts for the entire life cycle of the River Protection Project (RPP) mission, and is replacing the Hanford Tank Waste Operations Simulator (HTWOS) model as the foundation of the RPP system planning process. Currently, the DOE frequently requests HTWOS simulations of alternative technical and programmatic strategies for completing the RPP mission. Analysis of technical and programmatic changes can be performed with HTWOS; however, life cycle costs and schedules were previously generated by manual transfer of time-based data from HTWOS to Primavera P6. The LCM Tool automates the preparation of life cycle costs and schedules and is needed to provide timely turnaround capability for RPP mission alternative analyses. LCM is the simulation component of the LCM Tool. The simulation component is a replacement of the HTWOS model with new capability to support life cycle cost modeling. It is currently deployed in G22, but has been designed to work in any full object-oriented language with an extensive feature set focused on networking and cross-platform compatibility. The LCM retains existing HTWOS functionality needed to support system planning and alternatives studies going forward. In addition, it incorporates new functionality, coding improvements that streamline programming and model maintenance, and capability to input/export data to/from the LCM using the LCM Database (LCMDB). The LCM Cost/Schedule (LCMCS) contains cost and schedule data and logic. The LCMCS is used to generate life cycle costs and schedules for waste retrieval and processing scenarios. It uses time-based output data from the LCM to produce the logic ties in Primavera P6 necessary for shifting activities. The LCM Tool is evolving to address the needs of decision makers who want to understand the broad spectrum of risks facing complex organizations like DOE-RPP to understand how near

Life Cycle Assessment Applied to Naphtha Catalytic Reforming Analyse de cycle de vie appliquée au reformage catalytique du naphta

OpenAIRE

Portha J.-F.; Jaubert J.-N.; Louret S.; Pons M.-N.

2010-01-01

Facing the increase of environmental concerns in the oil and gas industry, engineers and scientists need information to assess sustainability of chemical processes. Among the different methods available, Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is widely used. In this study, LCA is applied to a catalytic reforming process using the Eco- Indicator 99 as life cycle impact assessment method. The main identified environmental impacts are fossil fuels consumption, climate change and respiratory effects du...

Analysis of environmental impact phase in the life cycle of a nuclear power plant

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hernandez del M, C.

2015-01-01

The life-cycle analysis covers the environmental aspects of a product throughout its life cycle. The focus of this study was to apply a methodology of life-cycle analysis for the environmental impact assessment of a nuclear power plant by analyzing international standards ISO 14040 and 14044. The methodology of life-cycle analysis established by the ISO 14044 standard was analyzed, as well as the different impact assessment methodologies of life cycle in order to choose the most appropriate for a nuclear power plant; various tools for the life-cycle analysis were also evaluated, as is the use of software and the use of databases to feed the life cycle inventory. The functional unit chosen was 1 KWh of electricity, the scope of analysis ranging from the construction and maintenance, disposal of spent fuel to the decommissioning of the plant, the manufacturing steps of the fuel were excluded because in Mexico is not done this stage. For environmental impact assessment was chosen the Recipe methodology which evaluates up to 18 impact categories depending on the project. In the case of a nuclear power plant were considered only categories of depletion of the ozone layer, climate change, ionizing radiation and formation of particulate matter. The different tools for life-cycle analysis as the methodologies of impact assessment of life cycle, different databases or use of software have been taken according to the modeling of environmental sensitivities of different regions, because in Mexico the methodology for life-cycle analysis has not been studied and still do not have all the tools necessary for the evaluation, so the uncertainty of the data supplied and results could be higher. (Author)

Getting the chemicals right: Gaps and opportunities in addressing inorganics in life cycle assessment

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Fantke, Peter; Kirchhübel, Nienke

2017-01-01

and certain cationic metals is included in existing characterization models within life cycle impact assessment (LCIA). However, a variety of additional inorganic substances used e.g. in the textile, personal care, and building and construction industry are included neither in current life cycle inventory...... databases, nor current LCIA methods. Without the integration of the various economically relevant and potentially human toxic and/or ecotoxic inorganic substances such as inorganic salts, acids, bases and elements, however, no satisfying conclusions regarding the environmental sustainability of any......Life cycle assessment (LCA) is used to compare products and product systems in terms of their environmental sustainability and for that LCA needs to include all potential impacts on humans and the environment. Currently, quantifying the toxicity potential of several thousand organic substances...

Decision support for large-scale remediation strategies by fused urban metabolism and life cycle assessment

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ohms, Pernille; Andersen, Camilla; Landgren, Mathilde

2018-01-01

Purpose: This paper seeks to identify the most environmental friendly way of conducting a refurbishment of Broendby Strand, with focus on PCB remediation. The actual identification is conducted by comparing four remediation techniques using urban metabolism fused with life cycle assessment (UM......-LCA) in combination with information relating to cost and efficiency of the compared techniques. The methodological goal of our paper is to test UM-LCA as a decision support tool and discuss application of the method in relation to large refurbishment projects. Methods: To assess the environmental performance of PCB......-remediation techniques, the UM-LCA method was applied. By combining UM and LCA methodologies, the total environmental impact potentials of the remediation techniques were calculated. To build an inventory for each technique, we contacted and interviewed experts and studied existing literature, cases, and projects...

Environmental assessment of waste incineration in a life-cycle-perspective (EASEWASTE)

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Riber, Christian; Bhander, Gurbakhash Singh; Christensen, Thomas Højlund

2008-01-01

of the wet waste incinerated. Emissions are either process-specific (related to the amount of waste incinerated) or input-specific (related to the composition of the waste incinerated), while mass transfer to solid outputs are governed by transfer coefficients specified by the user. The waste input......A model for life-cycle assessment of waste incinerators is described and applied to a case study for illustrative purposes. As life-cycle thinking becomes more integrated into waste management, quantitative tools for assessing waste management technologies are needed. The presented model...... in identifying the various processes and substances that contributed to environmental loadings as well as to environmental savings. The model was instrumental in demonstrating the importance of the energy recovery system not only for electricity but also heat from the incinerator....

Temporal discounting in life cycle assessment: A critical review and theoretical framework

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yuan, Chris; Wang, Endong; Zhai, Qiang; Yang, Fan

2015-01-01

Temporal homogeneity of inventory data is one of the major problems in life cycle assessment (LCA). Addressing temporal homogeneity of life cycle inventory data is important in reducing the uncertainties and improving the reliability of LCA results. This paper attempts to present a critical review and discussion on the fundamental issues of temporal homogeneity in conventional LCA and propose a theoretical framework for temporal discounting in LCA. Theoretical perspectives for temporal discounting in life cycle inventory analysis are discussed first based on the key elements of a scientific mechanism for temporal discounting. Then generic procedures for performing temporal discounting in LCA is derived and proposed based on the nature of the LCA method and the identified key elements of a scientific temporal discounting method. A five-step framework is proposed and reported in details based on the technical methods and procedures needed to perform a temporal discounting in life cycle inventory analysis. Challenges and possible solutions are also identified and discussed for the technical procedure and scientific accomplishment of each step within the framework. - Highlights: • A critical review for temporal homogeneity problem of life cycle inventory data • A theoretical framework for performing temporal discounting on inventory data • Methods provided to accomplish each step of the temporal discounting framework

Learning by doing – creating competences in engineering students on how and when to perform and use life cycle assessments

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hauschild, Michael Zwicky

2003-01-01

The course Life cycle assessment of products and systems has been given for eight consecutive years at the Technical University of Denmark. From the beginning, the course has been a targeted on life cycle assessment with a strong emphasis on the performance and use of life cycle assessment...... as decision support to industry and authorities. While different applications of life cycle assessments are introduced in lectures during the course, the main focus is on how to do an LCA....

Technological and life cycle assessment of organics processing odour control technologies

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Bindra, Navin [School of Engineering, University of Guelph, 50 Stone Road East, Guelph, Ontario N1G2W1 (Canada); Dubey, Brajesh, E-mail: bkdubey@civil.iitkgp.ernet.in [School of Engineering, University of Guelph, 50 Stone Road East, Guelph, Ontario N1G2W1 (Canada); Environmental Engineering Division, Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, West Bengal 721302 (India); Dutta, Animesh [School of Engineering, University of Guelph, 50 Stone Road East, Guelph, Ontario N1G2W1 (Canada)

2015-09-15

As more municipalities and communities across developed world look towards implementing organic waste management programmes or upgrading existing ones, composting facilities are emerging as a popular choice. However, odour from these facilities continues to be one of the most important concerns in terms of cost & effective mitigation. This paper provides a technological and life cycle assessment of some of the different odour control technologies and treatment methods that can be implemented in organics processing facilities. The technological assessment compared biofilters, packed tower wet scrubbers, fine mist wet scrubbers, activated carbon adsorption, thermal oxidization, oxidization chemicals and masking agents. The technologies/treatment methods were evaluated and compared based on a variety of operational, usage and cost parameters. Based on the technological assessment it was found that, biofilters and packed bed wet scrubbers are the most applicable odour control technologies for use in organics processing faculties. A life cycle assessment was then done to compare the environmental impacts of the packed-bed wet scrubber system, organic (wood-chip media) bio-filter and inorganic (synthetic media) bio-filter systems. Twelve impact categories were assessed; cumulative energy demand (CED), climate change, human toxicity, photochemical oxidant formation, metal depletion, fossil depletion, terrestrial acidification, freshwater eutrophication, marine eutrophication, terrestrial eco-toxicity, freshwater eco-toxicity and marine eco-toxicity. The results showed that for all impact categories the synthetic media biofilter had the highest environmental impact, followed by the wood chip media bio-filter system. The packed-bed system had the lowest environmental impact for all categories. - Highlights: • Assessment of odour control technologies for organics processing facilities. • Comparative life cycle assessment of three odour control technologies was conducted

Life cycle assessment of waste management systems: Assessing technical externalities

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Brogaard, Line Kai-Sørensen

The life cycle assessment (LCA) of a waste management system relies on many internal characteristics such as pollution control systems and recovery efficiencies. It also relies on technical externalities supporting the waste management system in terms of capital goods and energy and material...... for the primary and secondary production of materials, 366 datasets were gathered. The materials in focus were: paper, newsprint, cardboard, corrugated board, glass, aluminium, steel and plastics (HDPE, LDPE, LLDPE, PET, PS, PVC). Only one quarter of these data concerned secondary production, thus underlining...

Identifying and Assessing Life-Cycle-Related Critical Technology Elements (CTEs) for Technology Readiness Assessments (TRAs)

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Mandelbaum, Jay

2006-01-01

.... Because these technologies are not emphasized in the current Technology Readiness Assessment (TRA) process this document is intended to improve the focus on life-cycle-related technologies in TRAs...

Asphalt Concrete Mixtures: Requirements with regard to Life Cycle Assessment

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jan Mikolaj

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Design of asphalt concrete, required properties of constituent materials and their mixing ratios, is of tremendous significance and should be implemented with consideration given to the whole life cycle of those materials and the final construction. Conformity with requirements for long term performance of embedded materials is the general objective of the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA. Therefore, within the assessment, material properties need to be evaluated with consideration given to the whole service life—from the point of embedding in the construction until their disposal or recycling. The evaluation focuses on verification of conformity with criteria set for these materials and should guarantee serviceability and performance during their whole service life. Recycling and reuse of asphalt concrete should be preferred over disposal of the material. This paper presents methodology for LCA of asphalt concrete. It was created to ensure not only applicability of the materials in the initial stage, at the point of their embedding, but their suitability in terms of normatively prescribed service performance of the final construction. Methods described and results are presented in a case study for asphalt mixture AC 11; I design.

Life Cycle Assessment of two Electrolux electric cookers: ELK8200AL and EKV5600

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hansen, Morten Søes; Wenzel, Henrik; Frees, Niels

A life cycle assessment of two electrical cookers was made for the company Electrolux A/S. A number of valid conclusions can be drawn from the study. The conclusions are supported by a sensitivity analysis covering essential parameter variations and showing that quite robust conclusions can...... issue for the resource consumption of the cookers over their life cycle • Transportation of the cookers over their life cycle is insignificant Environmentally, the main perspectives for improvements lie in the optimisation of the use stage, including better efficiency in transformation of the energy...

Using Life Cycle Assessment to Inform Decision-Making for Sustainable Buildings

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mieke Vandenbroucke

2015-05-01

Full Text Available Because the student residences of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel built in 1973 are not adapted to current comfort standards, the university decided to construct new accommodation facilities at the border of the campus. However, besides demolition, there was no strategy on how to deal with the existing ones. In the search for a more sustainable strategy, the university’s administration assigned the TRANSFORM research team to define various design strategies and to assess the long-term environmental consequences in order to select the best strategy by the use of Life Cycle Environmental Assessment. Current Life Cycle Environmental Assessments generally include maintenance, repair, replacement and operational energy consumption during use, but do not include future refurbishments. However, it is likely that their impact cannot be neglected either. Therefore, this article offers a framework which takes future refurbishments into account, in addition to the standard use impacts: initial and end-of-life impact. We report on the construction assemblies, the results of the assessments conducted and the advice provided. The results confirm that the impact of future refurbishments cannot be neglected. In addition, we observed that there were significant environmental savings when transforming the residences compared to new construction, and long-term benefits of a design enabling the reuse of building elements.

Environmental impact assessment as a complement of life cycle assessment. Case study: Upgrading of biogas.

Science.gov (United States)

Morero, Betzabet; Rodriguez, María B; Campanella, Enrique A

2015-08-01

This work presents a comparison between an environmental impact assessment (EIA) and a life cycle assessment (LCA) using a case study: upgrading of biogas. The upgrading of biogas is studied using three solvents: water, physical solvent and amine. The EIA follows the requirements of the legislation of Santa Fe Province (Argentina), and the LCA follows ISO 14040. The LCA results showed that water produces a minor impact in most of the considered categories whereas the high impact in the process with amines is the result of its high energy consumptions. The positive results obtained in the EIA (mainly associated with the cultural and socioeconomic components) make the project feasible and all the negative impacts can be mitigated by preventive and remedial measures. From the strengths and weaknesses of each tool, it is inferred that the EIA is a procedure that can complement the LCA. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Assessing Water Risks in the Mining Industry using Life Cycle Assessment Based Approaches

OpenAIRE

STEPHEN ALAN NORTHEY

2018-01-01

Recent advances life cycle assessment methodology provide an opportunity to gain a more holistic understanding of how the mining industry interacts with water resources. A detailed review of assessment methodology and water management in the mining industry was undertaken to identify research needs. Global datasets of water use statistics for mining operations were also developed, and an exhaustive analysis of how global mineral resources and production are spatially distributed across local ...

Development of high-rise buildings: digitalization of life cycle management

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gusakova Elena

2018-01-01

Full Text Available The analysis of the accumulated long-term experience in the construction and operation of high-rise buildings reveals not only the engineering specificity of such projects, but also systemic problems in the field of project management. Most of the project decisions are made by the developer and the investor in the early stages of the life cycle - from the acquisition of the site to the start of operation, so most of the participants in the construction and operation of the high-rise building are far from the strategic life-cycle management of the project. The solution of these tasks due to the informatization of management has largely exhausted its efficiency resource. This is due to the fact that the applied IT-systems automated traditional "inherited" processes and management structures, and, in addition, they were focused on informatization of the activities of the construction company, rather than the construction project. Therefore, in the development of high-rise buildings, the tasks of researching approaches and methods for managing the full life cycle of projects that will improve their competitiveness become topical. For this purpose, the article substantiates the most promising approaches and methods of informational modeling of high-rise construction as a basis for managing the full life cycle of this project. Reengineering of information interaction schemes for project participants is considered; formation of a unified digital environment for the life cycle of the project; the development of systems for integrating data management and project management.

Development of high-rise buildings: digitalization of life cycle management

Science.gov (United States)

Gusakova, Elena

2018-03-01

The analysis of the accumulated long-term experience in the construction and operation of high-rise buildings reveals not only the engineering specificity of such projects, but also systemic problems in the field of project management. Most of the project decisions are made by the developer and the investor in the early stages of the life cycle - from the acquisition of the site to the start of operation, so most of the participants in the construction and operation of the high-rise building are far from the strategic life-cycle management of the project. The solution of these tasks due to the informatization of management has largely exhausted its efficiency resource. This is due to the fact that the applied IT-systems automated traditional "inherited" processes and management structures, and, in addition, they were focused on informatization of the activities of the construction company, rather than the construction project. Therefore, in the development of high-rise buildings, the tasks of researching approaches and methods for managing the full life cycle of projects that will improve their competitiveness become topical. For this purpose, the article substantiates the most promising approaches and methods of informational modeling of high-rise construction as a basis for managing the full life cycle of this project. Reengineering of information interaction schemes for project participants is considered; formation of a unified digital environment for the life cycle of the project; the development of systems for integrating data management and project management.

EASETECH Energy: Life Cycle Assessment of current and future Danish power systems

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Turconi, Roberto; Damgaard, Anders; Bisinella, Valentina

A new life cycle assessment (LCA) model software has been developed by DTU Environment, to facilitate detailed LCA of energy technologies. The model, EASETECH Energy, is dedicated to the specific technologies needed to assess energy production and energy systems and provides an unprecedented...

LIFE CYCLE ASSESSMENT IN HEALTHCARE SYSTEM OPTIMIZATION. INTRODUCTION

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

V. Sarancha

2015-03-01

Full Text Available Article describes the life cycle assessment method and introduces opportunities for method performance in healthcare system settings. LSA draws attention to careful use of resources, environmental, human and social responsibility. Modelling of environmental and technological inputs allows optimizing performance of the system. Various factors and parameters that may influence effectiveness of different sectors in healthcare system are detected. Performance optimization of detected parameters could lead to better system functioning, higher patient safety, economic sustainability and reduce resources consumption.

Life cycle assessment of gasoline and diesel

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Furuholt, Edgar

1995-01-01

A life cycle assessment (LCA) has been carried out to compare production and use of three different fuel products: regular gasoline, gasoline with MTBE and diesel. The study quantifies energy consumption and emissions through the production chain and assesses the potential impacts to the environment. Some of the methodological problems performing the LCA are discussed. The study indicates that production of gasoline with MTBE has potentially larger environmental impacts than production of regular gasoline, caused by the extra facilities for production of MTBE. The study also shows that the results are highly sensitive to the actual product specifications and assumptions that are made. Different product specifications can therefore lead to other conclusions. The results also indicate that production of diesel leads to significantly lower potential impacts than the gasolines

ESTIMATING INJURIOUS IMPACT IN CONSTRUCTION LIFE CYCLE ASSESSMENTS: A PROSPECTIVE STUDY

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

McDevitt, James E.

2012-04-01

Full Text Available This paper is the result of a desire to include social factors alongside environmental and economic considerations in Life Cycle Assessment studies for the construction sector. We describe a specific search for a method to include injurious impact for construction Life Cycle Assessment studies, by evaluating a range of methods and data sources. A simple case study using selected Accident Compensation Corporation information illustrates that data relating to injury could provide a compelling evidence to cause changes in construction supply chains, and could provide an economic motive to pursue further research in this area. The paper concludes that limitations notwithstanding, the suggested approach could be useful as a fast and cheap high level tool that can accelerate the discussions and research agenda that will bring about the inclusion of social metrics in construction sector supply chain management and declarations.

Life cycle assessment of construction and demolition waste management.

Science.gov (United States)

Butera, Stefania; Christensen, Thomas H; Astrup, Thomas F

2015-10-01

Life cycle assessment (LCA) modelling of construction and demolition waste (C&DW) management was carried out. The functional unit was management of 1 Mg mineral, source separated C&DW, which is either utilised in road construction as a substitute for natural aggregates, or landfilled. The assessed environmental impacts included both non-toxic and toxic impact categories. The scenarios comprised all stages of the end-of-life management of C&DW, until final disposal of all residues. Leaching of inorganic contaminants was included, as was the production of natural aggregates, which was avoided because of the use of C&DW. Typical uncertainties related to contaminant leaching were addressed. For most impact categories, utilisation of C&DW in road construction was preferable to landfilling; however, for most categories, utilisation resulted in net environmental burdens. Transportation represented the most important contribution for most nontoxic impacts, accounting for 60-95 per cent of these impacts. Capital goods contributed with negligible impacts. Leaching played a critical role for the toxic categories, where landfilling had lower impacts than utilisation because of the lower levels of leachate per ton of C&DW reaching the groundwater over a 100-year perspective. Leaching of oxyanions (As, V and Sb) was critical with respect to leaching. Typical experimental uncertainties in leaching data did not have a pivotal influence on the results; however, accounting for Cr immobilisation in soils as part of the impact assessment was critical for modelling the leaching impacts. Compared with the overall life cycle of building and construction materials, leaching emissions were shown to be potentially significant for toxicity impacts, compared with contributions from production of the same materials, showing that end-of-life impacts and leaching should not be disregarded when assessing environmental impacts from construction products and materials. CO2 uptake in the C

How can a life cycle inventory parametric model streamline life cycle assessment in the wooden pallet sector?

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Niero, Monia; Di Felice, Francesco; Ren, Jingzheng

2014-01-01

, as the information required for fulfilling the LCI are standard information about the features of the wooden pallet and its manufacturing process. The contribution analysis on the reference product revealed that the most contributing life cycle stages are wood and nails extraction and manufacturing (positive value......This study discusses the use of parameterization within the life cycle inventory (LCI) in the wooden pallet sector, in order to test the effectiveness of LCI parametric models to calculate the environmental impacts of similar products. Starting from a single case study, the objectives of this paper......; these correlations can be used to improve the design of new wooden pallets.The conceptual scheme for defining the model is based on ISO14040-44 standards. First of all, the product system was defined identifying the life cycle of a generic wood pallet, as well as its life cycle stages. A list of independent...

Life cycle assessment of renewables: present issues, future outlook and implications for the calculation of external costs

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Frankl, P.

2002-01-01

In principle, Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is certainly appropriate for estimating external costs of renewables, since major environmental impacts of the latter are generated in phases of the life cycle other than use. In practice however, several issues still remain. They are related to the availability and quality of Life Cycle Inventory (LCI) data, to the frit technological development of renewable energy technologies (RET), to the existence of many different applications of the latter and to a strong dependency on local conditions. Moreover, a 'static' picture of present technologies is not enough for policy indications. Therefore some kind of dynamic LCA is needed. These LCA issues are reflected in the calculation of external costs. First, the paper discusses these issues on the examples of two main technologies, namely photovoltaic (PV) and wind. Second, it discusses the results of ExternE for these two specific technologies and gives an outlook for the future. Future needs for a better use of LCA as a support tool for the calcination of external costs are identified. Finally, a new research project funded by the European Commission focused on LCI of renewables is briefly introduced and presented. (author)

A First Case Study of a Life Cycle-Based Alternatives Assessment (LCAA)

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Fantke, Peter; Huang, L.; Overcash, Michael

2017-01-01

cycle impacts. Our approach is evaluated in a case study, through which we outline future research needs to fully operationalize a consistent and Life Cycle-based Alternatives Assessment (LCAA). We build on a flexible mass balance-based modeling system yielding cumulative multimedia transfer fractions...... and exposure pathway-specific Product Intake Fractions defined as chemical mass taken in by humans per unit mass of chemical in a product. When combined with chemical masses in products and further with toxicity information, this approach is a resourceful way to inform AA. Our case study reveals that replacing...... various population groups including workers, consumers and the general public, while life cycle impacts need to focus on categories relevant for a given AA chemical-product application. We systematically define the scope of AA and identify key elements for quantitatively considering exposure and life...

Understanding Life Cycle Assessment: Applications for OSWER's Land and Materials Managment

Science.gov (United States)

The Office of Superfund Remediation and Technology Innovation (OSRTI) is hosting an informative webcast presentation by Jane Bare, expert on Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA) in EPA's Office of Research and Development. Ms. Bare's presentation will provide an overview of LCIA, ...

The Software Life-Cycle Based Configuration Management Tasks for the KNICS Project

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cheon, Se Woo; Kwon, Kee Choon

2005-01-01

Software configuration management (SCM) is an activity, which configures the form of a software system (e.g., design documents and programs) and systematically manages and controls the modifications used to compile the plans, development, and operations resulting from software development and maintenance. The SCM tool, NuSCM, has been specifically developed for the software life-cycle configuration management of developing the KNICS plant protection system (PPS). This paper presents the application of NuSCM to the KNICS project

Considering capital goods in life cycle assessments by input-output analysis. Offshore wind farm as an application example

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Eickelkamp, Timo

2013-01-01

Capital goods are not normally taken into consideration in assessing the sustainability of products on the basis of life cycle assessments. Capital goods are machines and buildings that are used for production purposes over the course of a product's life cycle. Using an offshore wind farm as an example the present study shows how capital goods can be taken into account via a methodologically expanded input-output analysis and thus factored into the life cycle assessment. Besides comparing different calculation methods the author performs a detailed analysis of those parameters with the greatest influence on the outcome. The results show that capital goods have a substantial impact on sustainability in both energy-related and environmental terms. Capital goods should therefore be taken into consideration in life cycle assessments.

Life cycle assessment. Specific indicators for Italy in impact evaluation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Masoni, P.

1999-01-01

After a brief recall and a short description of the LCA (life cycle assessment) methodology, the work is focused on the impact assessment step, discussing the state of the art and a critical identification of environmental indicators, of normalization and weighting principles for the different environmental categories specific for Italy. The application methodology to a case study concerning the production of butter by the Consorzio Granterre of Modena (Italy) is also described [it

Indicators for human toxicity in Life Cycle Impact Assessment

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Krewitt, Wolfram; Pennington, David W.; Olsen, Stig Irving

2002-01-01

The main objectives of this task group under SETAC-Europe’s Second Working Group on Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA-WIA2) were to identify and discuss the suitability of toxicological impact measures for human health for use in characterization in LCIA. The current state of the art of defining......, as well as potency. Quantitative severity-based indicators yield measures in terms of Years of Life Lost (YOLL), Disability Adjusted Life Years (DALY), Quality Adjusted Life Years (QALY) and other similar measures. DALYs and QALYs are examples of approaches that attempt to account for both years of life...... such as No Observed Effect Levels (NOEL). NOELs, and similar data, are determined in laboratory studies using rodents and are then extrapolated to more relevant human measures. Many examples also exist of measures and methods beyond potency-based indicators that attempt to account for differences in expected severity...

Life Cycle Assessment for the Production of Oil Palm Seeds.

Science.gov (United States)

Muhamad, Halimah; Ai, Tan Yew; Khairuddin, Nik Sasha Khatrina; Amiruddin, Mohd Din; May, Choo Yuen

2014-12-01

The oil palm seed production unit that generates germinated oil palm seeds is the first link in the palm oil supply chain, followed by the nursery to produce seedling, the plantation to produce fresh fruit bunches (FFB), the mill to produce crude palm oil (CPO) and palm kernel, the kernel crushers to produce crude palm kernel oil (CPKO), the refinery to produce refined palm oil (RPO) and finally the palm biodiesel plant to produce palm biodiesel. This assessment aims to investigate the life cycle assessment (LCA) of germinated oil palm seeds and the use of LCA to identify the stage/s in the production of germinated oil palm seeds that could contribute to the environmental load. The method for the life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) is modelled using SimaPro version 7, (System for Integrated environMental Assessment of PROducts), an internationally established tool used by LCA practitioners. This software contains European and US databases on a number of materials in addition to a variety of European- and US-developed impact assessment methodologies. LCA was successfully conducted for five seed production units and it was found that the environmental impact for the production of germinated oil palm was not significant. The characterised results of the LCIA for the production of 1000 germinated oil palm seeds showed that fossil fuel was the major impact category followed by respiratory inorganics and climate change.

LIFE CYCLE ASSESSMENT (LCA AS A TOOL FOR BUSINESS STRATEGY

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rodrigo Salvador

2014-09-01

Full Text Available The growing concern about the development of sustainable production systems leads organizations to seek the support of management tools for decision-making. Considering the whole life cycle of the product, the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA has an important role in this scenario. The objective of this paper is to present, through the theoretical discussion, the role of LCA in strategic planning of the organization. It showed the enormous potential for decision making on the environmental aspect, but also the critical factor in the development shares in the competitive context. The use of LCA can reduce the environmental impacts of the system under study (primary purpose and guide the range of advantages in the fields of marketing, legislation and environmental labeling, competitive strategies, efficiency use of resources and others.

Life cycle assessment, electricity generation and sustainability

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Aumonier, S.

1998-01-01

When making a choice between alternatives, in whatever field, it is essential to have regard for the complete set of costs and benefits, in the widest possible sense, that will result in each case. The preferred option should be that which confers the maximum benefit, although relevant objectives will often conflict and its identification may be far from straightforward. Life cycle assessment (LCA) is an environmental accounting tool for measuring the inputs and outputs of an option, whether a product, a process or an activity. This paper explains the principles and methodologies involved in LCA, its application to the nuclear sector, and to electricity generating options and sustainable development. (author)

Solar-generated steam for oil recovery: Reservoir simulation, economic analysis, and life cycle assessment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sandler, Joel; Fowler, Garrett; Cheng, Kris; Kovscek, Anthony R.

2014-01-01

Highlights: • Integrated assessment of solar thermal enhanced oil recovery (TEOR). • Analyses of reservoir performance, economics, and life cycle factors. • High solar fraction scenarios show economic viability for TEOR. • Continuous variable-rate steam injection meets the benchmarks set by conventional steam flood. - Abstract: The viability of solar thermal steam generation for thermal enhanced oil recovery (TEOR) in heavy-oil sands was evaluated using San Joaquin Valley, CA data. The effectiveness of solar TEOR was quantified through reservoir simulation, economic analysis, and life-cycle assessment. Reservoir simulations with continuous but variable rate steam injection were compared with a base-case Tulare Sand steamflood project. For equivalent average injection rates, comparable breakthrough times and recovery factors of 65% of the original oil in place were predicted, in agreement with simulations in the literature. Daily cyclic fluctuations in steam injection rate do not greatly impact recovery. Oil production rates do, however, show seasonal variation. Economic viability was established using historical prices and injection/production volumes from the Kern River oil field. For comparison, this model assumes that present day steam generation technologies were implemented at TEOR startup in 1980. All natural gas cogeneration and 100% solar fraction scenarios had the largest and nearly equal net present values (NPV) of $12.54 B and $12.55 B, respectively. Solar fraction refers to the steam provided by solar steam generation. Given its large capital cost, the 100% solar case shows the greatest sensitivity to discount rate and no sensitivity to natural gas price. Because there are very little emissions associated with day-to-day operations from the solar thermal system, life-cycle emissions are significantly lower than conventional systems even when the embodied energy of the structure is considered. We estimate that less than 1 g of CO 2 /MJ of refined

Life cycle assessment of the transmission network in Great Britain

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Harrison, Gareth P.; Maclean, Edward J.; Karamanlis, Serafeim; Ochoa, Luis F.

2010-01-01

Analysis of lower carbon power systems has tended to focus on the operational carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) emissions from power stations. However, to achieve the large cuts required it is necessary to understand the whole-life contribution of all sectors of the electricity industry. Here, a preliminary assessment of the life cycle carbon emissions of the transmission network in Great Britain is presented. Using a 40-year period and assuming a static generation mix it shows that the carbon equivalent emissions (or global warming potential) of the transmission network are around 11 gCO 2-eq /kWh of electricity transmitted and that almost 19 times more energy is transmitted by the network than is used in its construction and operation. Operational emissions account for 96% of this with transmission losses alone totalling 85% and sulphur hexafluoride (SF 6 ) emissions featuring significantly. However, the CO 2 embodied within the raw materials of the network infrastructure itself represents a modest 3%. Transmission investment decisions informed by whole-life cycle carbon assessments of network design could balance higher financial and carbon 'capital' costs of larger conductors with lower transmission losses and CO 2 emissions over the network lifetime. This will, however, necessitate new regulatory approaches to properly incentivise transmission companies.

The environmental impact of organic Rankine cycle for waste heat recovery through life-cycle assessment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Liu, Chao; He, Chao; Gao, Hong; Xie, Hui; Li, Yourong; Wu, Shuangying; Xu, Jinliang

2013-01-01

The LCA (life-cycle assessment) was applied to evaluate EI (the environmental impact) of ORCPW (organic Rankine cycle power-plant for waste-heat-recovery) in this paper. The model of LCA on the ORCPW was established. The life-cycle of ORCPW was divided into construction, operation and decommissioning phases. The inventory of environmental emissions was listed for the ORCPW with 7 different working fluids. The GWP (global warming potential), AP (acidification potential), EP (eutrophication potential), HTP (human toxicity potential), SWP (solid waste potential) and SAP (soot and dust potential) were investigated. Some EIs of ORCPW were compared with the EIs of other power generation modes. The results show that the construction phase of ORCPW contributes mostly to the GWP and EP. GWP is the most serious EI followed by HTP among all the environmental impacts. The average pay back times of greenhouse gas discharged from ORCPW is calculated on the basis of five other power generation modes. For 7 different working fluids, it is 3–5 years for CO 2 , about one year for CH 4 and 3–6 years for NO x . But CO cannot be paid back during the life-cycle of ORCPW according to the average pay back time. - Highlights: • LCA was proposed to evaluate the environmental performance of ORC. • The ORC life cycle environmental emissions inventory was established. • GWP is the most serious environmental impact, followed by HTP. • The ORC with R113 exhibits the lowest environment impact load, followed by Pentane. • The total GWP of ORC could be paid back in 5 years

Integrating life-cycle environmental and economic assessment with transportation and land use planning.

Science.gov (United States)

Chester, Mikhail V; Nahlik, Matthew J; Fraser, Andrew M; Kimball, Mindy A; Garikapati, Venu M

2013-01-01

The environmental outcomes of urban form changes should couple life-cycle and behavioral assessment methods to better understand urban sustainability policy outcomes. Using Phoenix, Arizona light rail as a case study, an integrated transportation and land use life-cycle assessment (ITLU-LCA) framework is developed to assess the changes to energy consumption and air emissions from transit-oriented neighborhood designs. Residential travel, commercial travel, and building energy use are included and the framework integrates household behavior change assessment to explore the environmental and economic outcomes of policies that affect infrastructure. The results show that upfront environmental and economic investments are needed (through more energy-intense building materials for high-density structures) to produce long run benefits in reduced building energy use and automobile travel. The annualized life-cycle benefits of transit-oriented developments in Phoenix can range from 1.7 to 230 Gg CO2e depending on the aggressiveness of residential density. Midpoint impact stressors for respiratory effects and photochemical smog formation are also assessed and can be reduced by 1.2-170 Mg PM10e and 41-5200 Mg O3e annually. These benefits will come at an additional construction cost of up to $410 million resulting in a cost of avoided CO2e at $16-29 and household cost savings.

Geothermal life cycle assessment - part 3

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Sullivan, J. L. [Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States); Frank, E. D. [Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States); Han, J. [Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States); Elgowainy, A. [Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States); Wang, M. Q. [Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)

2013-11-01

A set of key issues pertaining to the environmental performance of geothermal electric power have been addressed. They include: 1) greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) from geothermal facilities, 2) the use of supercritical carbon dioxide (scCO₂) as a geofluid for enhanced geothermal systems (EGS), 3) quantifying the impact of well field exploration on the life cycle of geothermal power, and finally 4) criteria pollutant emissions for geothermal and other electric power generation. A GHG emission rate (g/kWh) distribution as function of cumulative running capacity for California has been developed based on California and U. S. government data. The distribution is similar to a global distribution for compared geothermal technologies. A model has been developed to estimate life cycle energy of and CO₂ emissions from a coupled pair of coal and EGS plants, the latter of which is powered by scCO₂ captured from coal plant side. Depending on the CO₂ capture rate on the coal side and the CO₂ consumption rate on the EGS side, significant reductions in GHG emissions were computed when the combined system is compared to its conventional coal counterpart. In effect, EGS CO₂ consumption acts as a sequestration mechanism for the coal plant. The effects CO₂ emissions from the coupled system, prompt on the coal side and reservoir leakage on the EGS side, were considered as well as the subsequent decline of these emissions after entering the atmosphere over a time frame of 100 years. A model was also developed to provide better estimates of the impact of well field exploration on the life cycle performance of geothermal power production. The new estimates increase the overall life cycle metrics for the geothermal systems over those previously estimated. Finally, the GREET model has been updated to include the most recent criteria pollutant emissions for a range of renewable (including geothermal) and other power

Evaluation of two streamlined life cycle assessment methods

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hochschomer, Elisabeth; Finnveden, Goeran; Johansson, Jessica

2002-02-01

Two different methods for streamlined life cycle assessment (LCA) are described: the MECO-method and SLCA. Both methods are tested on an already made case-study on cars fuelled with petrol or ethanol, and electric cars with electricity produced from hydro power or coal. The report also contains some background information on LCA and streamlined LCA, and a deschption of the case study used. The evaluation of the MECO and SLCA-methods are based on a comparison of the results from the case study as well as practical aspects. One conclusion is that the SLCA-method has some limitations. Among the limitations are that the whole life-cycle is not covered, it requires quite a lot of information and there is room for arbitrariness. It is not very flexible instead it difficult to develop further. We are therefore not recommending the SLCA-method. The MECO-method does in comparison show several attractive features. It is also interesting to note that the MECO-method produces information that is complementary compared to a more traditional quantitative LCA. We suggest that the MECO method needs some further development and adjustment to Swedish conditions

Life Cycle Assessment of Sugar Production (VB)

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Teljigovic, Mehmed; Mengiardi, Jon; Factor, Gabriela

1999-01-01

The environmental organisation NOAH has proposed carrying out an environmental assessment of two different sugar productions (using sugar beet or sugar cane) in order to illustrate which of the systems has a higher environmental impact for sugar consumption in Denmark. Therefore a comparison...... will be made between sugar from sugar beet produced in Denmark versus sugar produces from sugar cane in a tropical country, Brazil, and transported afterwards to Denmark. To evaluate the environmental aspects of these two product systems a Life Cycle Assessement (LCA) will be carried out.From the results...... obtained in the present LCA of sugar produces from sugar canes or sugar beet it is difficult to make an immediate choice between the two possibilities. Indeed, Quantitative results from the EDIP (Environmental Design of Industrial Products) software are globally similar for both ways of producing sugar...

The Environmental Impact of Industrial Bamboo Products : Life-cycle Assessment and Carbon Sequestration

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Vogtlander, J.G.; Van der Lugt, P.

2014-01-01

This report gives a Life-Cycle Assessment (LCA) and carbon footprint analysis on a selection of industrial bamboo products. The LCA is made for cradle-to-gate, plus the end-of-life stages of the bamboo products. For end-of-life it is assumed that 90% of the bamboo products are incinerated in an

MED-SUV Data Life Cycle

Science.gov (United States)

Sangianantoni, Agata; Puglisi, Giuseppe; Spampinato, Letizia; Tulino, Sabrina

2015-04-01

The MED-SUV project aims to implement a digital e-infrastructure for data access in order to promote the monitoring and study of key volcanic regions prone to volcanic hazards, and thus improve hazard assessment, according to the rationale of Supersite GEO initiative to Vesuvius- Campi Flegrei and Mt Etna, currently identified as Permanent Supersites. The present study focuses on the life cycle of MED-SUV data generated in the first period of the project and highlights the managing approach, as well as the crucial steps to be implemented for ensuring that data will be properly and ethically managed and can be used and accessed from both MED-SUV and the external community. The process is conceived outlining how research data being handled as the project progresses, describing what data are collected, processed or generated and how these data are going to be shared and made available through Open Access. Data cycle begins with their generation and ends with the deposit in the digital infrastructure, its key series of stages through which MED-SUV data passes are Collection, Data citation, Categorization of data, Approval procedure, Registration of datasets, Application of licensing models, and PID assignment. This involves a combination of procedures and practices taking into account the scientific core mission and the priorities of the project as well as the potential legal issues related to the management and protection of the Intellectual Property. We believe that the implementation of this process constitutes a significant encouragement in MED-SUV data sharing and as a consequence a better understanding on the volcanic processes, hazard assessment and a better integration with other Supersites projects.

Comparative analysis of the life cycle impact assessment of available cement inventories in the EU

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Josa, Alejandro; Aguado, Antonio; Cardim, Arnaldo; Byars, Ewan

2007-01-01

Life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) is one of basic steps in life cycle assessment methodology (LCA). This paper presents a comparative study of the LCIA of different life cycle inventories (LCI) for EU cements. The analysis unit used is the manufacture of 1 kg of cement, from 'cradle to gate'. The impact categories considered are those resulting from the manufacture of cement and include greenhouse effects, acidification, eutrophication and summer and winter smog, amongst others. The results of the study highlighted some inconsistencies in existing inventories. As for the LCIA, the main environmental interventions related to cement manufacture were classified and characterised and their effect on different impact categories analysed. Differences observed in evaluation of the impact of cement type were essentially related to their clinker content

Life cycle assessment of a national policy proposal - The case of a Swedish waste incineration tax

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bjoerklund, Anna E.; Finnveden, Goeran

2007-01-01

At the core of EU and Swedish waste policy is the so-called waste hierarchy, according to which waste should first be prevented, but should otherwise be treated in the following order of prioritisation: reuse, recycling when environmentally motivated, energy recovery, and last landfilling. Some recent policy decisions in Sweden aim to influence waste management in the direction of the waste hierarchy. In 2001 a governmental commission assessed the economic and environmental impacts of introducing a weight-based tax on waste incineration, the purpose of which would be to encourage waste reduction and increase materials recycling and biological treatment. This paper presents the results of a life cycle assessment (LCA) of the waste incineration tax proposal. It was done in the context of a larger research project concerning the development and testing of a framework for Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA). The aim of this paper is to assess the life cycle environmental impacts of the waste incineration tax proposal, and to investigate whether there are any possibilities of more optimal design of such a tax. The proposed design of the waste incineration tax results in increased recycling, but only in small environmental improvements. A more elaborate tax design is suggested, in which the tax level would partly be related to the fossil carbon content of the waste

Quantified Uncertainties in Comparative Life Cycle Assessment : What Can Be Concluded?

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Mendoza Beltran, Angelica; Prado, Valentina; Font Vivanco, David; Henriksson, Patrik J.G.; Guinée, Jeroen B.; Heijungs, Reinout

2018-01-01

Interpretation of comparative Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) results can be challenging in the presence of uncertainty. To aid in interpreting such results under the goal of any comparative LCA, we aim to provide guidance to practitioners by gaining insights into uncertainty-statistics methods (USMs).

Sensitivity analysis of the use of Life Cycle Impact Assessment methods: a case study on building materials

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bueno, Cristiane; Hauschild, Michael Zwicky; Rossignolo, Joao Adriano

2016-01-01

The main aim of this research is to perform a sensitivity analysis of a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) case study to understand if the use of different Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA) methods may lead to different conclusions by decision makers and stakeholders. A complete LCA was applied to non...

Process integrated modelling for steelmaking Life Cycle Inventory analysis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Iosif, Ana-Maria; Hanrot, Francois; Ablitzer, Denis

2008-01-01

During recent years, strict environmental regulations have been implemented by governments for the steelmaking industry in order to reduce their environmental impact. In the frame of the ULCOS project, we have developed a new methodological framework which combines the process integrated modelling approach with Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) method in order to carry out the Life Cycle Inventory of steelmaking. In the current paper, this new concept has been applied to the sinter plant which is the most polluting steelmaking process. It has been shown that this approach is a powerful tool to make the collection of data easier, to save time and to provide reliable information concerning the environmental diagnostic of the steelmaking processes

Accounting for ecosystem services in life cycle assessment, Part I: a critical review.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Yi; Singh, Shweta; Bakshi, Bhavik R

2010-04-01

If life cycle oriented methods are to encourage sustainable development, they must account for the role of ecosystem goods and services, since these form the basis of planetary activities and human well-being. This article reviews methods that are relevant to accounting for the role of nature and that could be integrated into life cycle oriented approaches. These include methods developed by ecologists for quantifying ecosystem services, by ecological economists for monetary valuation, and life cycle methods such as conventional life cycle assessment, thermodynamic methods for resource accounting such as exergy and emergy analysis, variations of the ecological footprint approach, and human appropriation of net primary productivity. Each approach has its strengths: economic methods are able to quantify the value of cultural services; LCA considers emissions and assesses their impact; emergy accounts for supporting services in terms of cumulative exergy; and ecological footprint is intuitively appealing and considers biocapacity. However, no method is able to consider all the ecosystem services, often due to the desire to aggregate all resources in terms of a single unit. This review shows that comprehensive accounting for ecosystem services in LCA requires greater integration among existing methods, hierarchical schemes for interpreting results via multiple levels of aggregation, and greater understanding of the role of ecosystems in supporting human activities. These present many research opportunities that must be addressed to meet the challenges of sustainability.

Application of monetary valuation in Life Cycle Assessment

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Weidema, Bo Pedersen; Pizzol, Massimo; Miguel, Brandão

Monetary valuation, or monetarisation, is the determination of the economic value of non-market goods, i.e. goods for which no market exists. Although monetary valuation has a great potential to be applied in Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), in particular in the weighting phase, several challenges...... for LCA. For the two surveys, the total number of respondents was 209. The critial review showed that observed- and revealed-preference methods and the abatement cost method have limited applicability in LCA, whereas the conjoint analysis method and the budget constraint method are the best options...

Environmental analysis of natural gas life cycle

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Riva, A.; D'Angelosante, S.; Trebeschi, C.

2000-01-01

Life Cycle Assessment is a method aimed at identifying the environmental effects connected with a given product, process or activity during its whole life cycle. The evaluation of published studies and the application of the method to electricity production with fossil fuels, by using data from published databases and data collected by the gas industry, demonstrate the importance and difficulties to have reliable and updated data required for a significant life cycle assessment. The results show that the environmental advantages of natural gas over the other fossil fuels in the final use stage increase still further if the whole life cycle of the fuels, from production to final consumption, is taken into account [it

A Watershed Scale Life Cycle Assessment Framework for Hydrologic Design

Science.gov (United States)

Tavakol-Davani, H.; Tavakol-Davani, PhD, H.; Burian, S. J.

2017-12-01

Sustainable hydrologic design has received attention from researchers with different backgrounds, including hydrologists and sustainability experts, recently. On one hand, hydrologists have been analyzing ways to achieve hydrologic goals through implementation of recent environmentally-friendly approaches, e.g. Green Infrastructure (GI) - without quantifying the life cycle environmental impacts of the infrastructure through the ISO Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) method. On the other hand, sustainability experts have been applying the LCA to study the life cycle impacts of water infrastructure - without considering the important hydrologic aspects through hydrologic and hydraulic (H&H) analysis. In fact, defining proper system elements for a watershed scale urban water sustainability study requires both H&H and LCA specialties, which reveals the necessity of performing an integrated, interdisciplinary study. Therefore, the present study developed a watershed scale coupled H&H-LCA framework to bring the hydrology and sustainability expertise together to contribute moving the current wage definition of sustainable hydrologic design towards onto a globally standard concept. The proposed framework was employed to study GIs for an urban watershed in Toledo, OH. Lastly, uncertainties associated with the proposed method and parameters were analyzed through a robust Monte Carlo simulation using parallel processing. Results indicated the necessity of both hydrologic and LCA components in the design procedure in order to achieve sustainability.

Life cycle assessment of a multi-megawatt wind turbine

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Martinez, E.; Pellegrini, S. [Grupo Eolicas Riojanas, R and D Division, Carretera de Laguardia, 91-93, 26006 Logrono, La Rioja (Spain); Sanz, F.; Blanco, J. [Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of La Rioja, Logrono, La Rioja (Spain); Jimenez, E. [Department of Electrical Engineering, University of La Rioja, Logrono, La Rioja (Spain)

2009-03-15

At the present moment in time, renewable energy sources have achieved great significance for modern day society. The main reason for this boom is the need to use alternative sources of energy to fossil fuels which are free of CO{sub 2} emissions and contamination. Among the current renewable energy sources, the growth of wind farms has been spectacular. Wind power uses the kinetic energy of the wind to produce a clean form of energy without producing contamination or emissions. The problem it raises is that of quantifying to what extent it is a totally clean form of energy. In this sense we have to consider not only the emissions produced while they are in operation, but also the contamination and environmental impact resulting from their manufacture and the future dismantling of the turbines when they come to the end of their working life. The aim of this study is to analyse the real impact that this technology has if we consider the whole life cycle. The application of the ISO 14040 standard [ISO. ISO 14040. Environmental management - life cycle assessment - principles and framework. Geneva, Switzerland: International Standard Organization; 1998.] allows us to make an LCA study quantifying the overall impact of a wind turbine and each of its components. Applying this methodology, the wind turbine is analysed during all the phases of its life cycle, from cradle to grave, with regard to the manufacture of its key components (through the incorporation of cut-off criteria), transport to the wind farm, subsequent installation, start-up, maintenance and final dismantling and stripping down into waste materials and their treatment. (author)

Sustainable Building Life Cycle Design

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ginzburg Alexander

2016-01-01

Full Text Available The current building life cycle management system in the Russian Federation is a family of discrete subsystems that exist independently for different building life cycle stages. In this situation building reliability and sustainable functioning are out of the question. The implementation of a united information model (BIM-model intended to describe building entire life cycle will allow to raise the sustainability, but this will happen only if goals and concerns of all participants of the project process are properly coordinated. An important figure of process sustainability is the organizational and technological reliability (OTR that describes the possibility of a system to reach a goal. In case of building life cycle design, the economical efficiency of a building can be considered as the goal. The required technical, ecological, organizational, and other parameters form a complex of constraints that determine the area of allowable values for building functioning. In its broad meaning, OTR may be understood as the probability of receiving an economical effect based on the value of organizational and economical reliability (OER.

Comparative life cycle assessment of industrial multi-product processes

OpenAIRE

Jung, Johannes

2014-01-01

The demand for environmentally safe industrial processes is increasing. Therefore, environmental impacts of new processes have to be examined at an early stage. A method for analyzing environmental impacts is life cycle assessment (LCA). A major trouble of LCA are multi-functionality problems. Multi-functionality problems can be fixed using alternative methods such as system expansion, avoided burden and allocation. Each of the three methods requires choices by the LCA-practitioner. The choic...

Life cycle assessment of palm-derived biodiesel in Taiwan

KAUST Repository

Maharjan, Sumit; Wang, Wei-Cheng; Teah, Heng Yi

2016-01-01

. This study aims to evaluate the cradle-to-grave life cycle environmental performance of palm biodiesel within two different Asian countries, Malaysia and Taiwan. The phases of the life cycle such as direct land-use-change impact, plantation and milling

On the use of different models for consequential life cycle assessment

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Yang, Yi; Heijungs, Reinout

2018-01-01

Purpose: Consequential life cycle assessment (CLCA) studies how a system responds to a decision in question. There has been a growing body of CLCA studies in the last decade, with different models being incorporated from other fields, partly to compensate for the limitations of the conventional

Review of Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment and Potential for Its Adoption at an Automotive Company

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Peter Tarne

2017-04-01

Full Text Available The aim of this paper is to guide the next steps of a PhD thesis through a structured review of the state of the art and implementation of Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment (LCSA, and to identify challenges and potentials for its adoption at an automotive company. First, the structured literature review was conducted on LCSA to screen the current methodological and practical implementations and to identify the main research needs in the field. Second, a research on the current status of LCSA within the automotive industry was carried out by means of investigation of published sources of 15 Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM. By combining the results of both steps and consulting with decision makers, the challenges and potential for adopting LCSA at an automotive company were identified. The main challenges for adoption of LCSA were found to be: (1 the consistent execution of the three life cycle based assessment methods; (2 the comparatively low maturity of Social Life Cycle Assessment (S-LCA; and (3 the adequate presentation and interpretation of results. Next steps towards implementation would be a case study to gather experience on the combined execution of the three life cycle based assessments at an automotive company. Furthermore, it should be determined what the needs of decision makers at an automotive company are regarding the aggregation and interpretation of environmental, social, and economic impacts.

Using Model-Based Systems Engineering To Provide Artifacts for NASA Project Life-Cycle and Technical Reviews

Science.gov (United States)

Parrott, Edith L.; Weiland, Karen J.

2017-01-01

The ability of systems engineers to use model-based systems engineering (MBSE) to generate self-consistent, up-to-date systems engineering products for project life-cycle and technical reviews is an important aspect for the continued and accelerated acceptance of MBSE. Currently, many review products are generated using labor-intensive, error-prone approaches based on documents, spreadsheets, and chart sets; a promised benefit of MBSE is that users will experience reductions in inconsistencies and errors. This work examines features of SysML that can be used to generate systems engineering products. Model elements, relationships, tables, and diagrams are identified for a large number of the typical systems engineering artifacts. A SysML system model can contain and generate most systems engineering products to a significant extent and this paper provides a guide on how to use MBSE to generate products for project life-cycle and technical reviews. The use of MBSE can reduce the schedule impact usually experienced for review preparation, as in many cases the review products can be auto-generated directly from the system model. These approaches are useful to systems engineers, project managers, review board members, and other key project stakeholders.

LIFE CYCLE DESIGN OF A FUEL TANK SYSTEM

Science.gov (United States)

This life cycle design (LCD) project was a collaborative effort between the National Pollution Prevention Center at the University of Michigan, General Motors (GM), and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The primary objective of this project was to apply life cyc...

Using Model-Based System Engineering to Provide Artifacts for NASA Project Life-Cycle and Technical Reviews Presentation

Science.gov (United States)

Parrott, Edith L.; Weiland, Karen J.

2017-01-01

This is the presentation for the AIAA Space conference in September 2017. It highlights key information from Using Model-Based Systems Engineering to Provide Artifacts for NASA Project Life-cycle and Technical Reviews paper.

A Life-Cycle Assessment of Biofuels: Tracing Energy and Carbon through a Fuel-Production System

Science.gov (United States)

Krauskopf, Sara

2010-01-01

A life-cycle assessment (LCA) is a tool used by engineers to make measurements of net energy, greenhouse gas production, water consumption, and other items of concern. This article describes an activity designed to walk students through the qualitative part of an LCA. It asks them to consider the life-cycle costs of ethanol production, in terms of…

Insulation Cork Boards—Environmental Life Cycle Assessment of an Organic Construction Material

Science.gov (United States)

Silvestre, José D.; Pargana, Nuno; de Brito, Jorge; Pinheiro, Manuel D.; Durão, Vera

2016-01-01

Envelope insulation is a relevant technical solution to cut energy consumption and reduce environmental impacts in buildings. Insulation Cork Boards (ICB) are a natural thermal insulation material whose production promotes the recycling of agricultural waste. The aim of this paper is to determine and evaluate the environmental impacts of the production, use, and end-of-life processing of ICB. A “cradle-to-cradle” environmental Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) was performed according to International LCA standards and the European standards on the environmental evaluation of buildings. These results were based on site-specific data and resulted from a consistent methodology, fully described in the paper for each life cycle stage: Cork oak tree growth, ICB production, and end-of-life processing-modeling of the carbon flows (i.e., uptakes and emissions), including sensitivity analysis of this procedure; at the production stage—the modeling of energy processes and a sensitivity analysis of the allocation procedures; during building operation—the expected service life of ICB; an analysis concerning the need to consider the thermal diffusivity of ICB in the comparison of the performance of insulation materials. This paper presents the up-to-date “cradle-to-cradle” environmental performance of ICB for the environmental categories and life-cycle stages defined in European standards. PMID:28773516

Insulation Cork Boards-Environmental Life Cycle Assessment of an Organic Construction Material.

Science.gov (United States)

Silvestre, José D; Pargana, Nuno; de Brito, Jorge; Pinheiro, Manuel D; Durão, Vera

2016-05-20

Envelope insulation is a relevant technical solution to cut energy consumption and reduce environmental impacts in buildings. Insulation Cork Boards (ICB) are a natural thermal insulation material whose production promotes the recycling of agricultural waste. The aim of this paper is to determine and evaluate the environmental impacts of the production, use, and end-of-life processing of ICB. A "cradle-to-cradle" environmental Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) was performed according to International LCA standards and the European standards on the environmental evaluation of buildings. These results were based on site-specific data and resulted from a consistent methodology, fully described in the paper for each life cycle stage: Cork oak tree growth, ICB production, and end-of-life processing-modeling of the carbon flows ( i.e. , uptakes and emissions), including sensitivity analysis of this procedure; at the production stage-the modeling of energy processes and a sensitivity analysis of the allocation procedures; during building operation-the expected service life of ICB; an analysis concerning the need to consider the thermal diffusivity of ICB in the comparison of the performance of insulation materials. This paper presents the up-to-date "cradle-to-cradle" environmental performance of ICB for the environmental categories and life-cycle stages defined in European standards.

Insulation Cork Boards—Environmental Life Cycle Assessment of an Organic Construction Material

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

José D. Silvestre

2016-05-01

Full Text Available Envelope insulation is a relevant technical solution to cut energy consumption and reduce environmental impacts in buildings. Insulation Cork Boards (ICB are a natural thermal insulation material whose production promotes the recycling of agricultural waste. The aim of this paper is to determine and evaluate the environmental impacts of the production, use, and end-of-life processing of ICB. A “cradle-to-cradle” environmental Life Cycle Assessment (LCA was performed according to International LCA standards and the European standards on the environmental evaluation of buildings. These results were based on site-specific data and resulted from a consistent methodology, fully described in the paper for each life cycle stage: Cork oak tree growth, ICB production, and end-of-life processing-modeling of the carbon flows (i.e., uptakes and emissions, including sensitivity analysis of this procedure; at the production stage—the modeling of energy processes and a sensitivity analysis of the allocation procedures; during building operation—the expected service life of ICB; an analysis concerning the need to consider the thermal diffusivity of ICB in the comparison of the performance of insulation materials. This paper presents the up-to-date “cradle-to-cradle” environmental performance of ICB for the environmental categories and life-cycle stages defined in European standards.

Cost estimation and management over the life cycle of metallurgical ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

This study investigates whether all expected costs over the life cycle of metallurgical research projects are included in initial, normal and fi nal cost estimates, and whether these costs are managed throughout a project's life cycle since there is not enough emphasis on the accurate estimation of costs and their management ...

THE LIFE CYCLE ASSESSMENT - A CASE STUDY OF TRANSPORTING VOLVO CARS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gloria P. Gerilla

2000-01-01

Full Text Available The increase in the number of vehicles in our society is detrimental to the environment because of increased fuel usage and pollutant emissions. This paper analyze the environmental effects of transporting cars from its manufacturer to its end user. The method used is the life cycle assessment (LCA. Life cycle assessment is a method for analyzing and evaluating environmental performance of products, processes or services throughout its entire life cycle. The paper also shows the effect of changing the fuel type used in transporting the vehicles. It can be seen that from the pollutant emissions in the transport chain, carbon dioxide and nitrogen oxides are the leading pollutants, which affect the air quality in the environment. The truck is shown to be a heavy polluter in terms of its emission factors and there is not much difference between a European and an Asian country. With the use of the natural gas as an alternative fuel, emission levels can be reduced to as much as 19 % for CO2 and 16 % for NOx emissions while costs are higher in the first few years because of conversion costs, it can be said that it is worth the risk. The truck can be an environmentally adapted vehicle if its engine is converted to an alternative fuel engine like the compressed natural gas. The LCA methodology is holistic because it gives a systems analysis of the product

Life cycle assessment (LCA of lead-free solders from the environmental protection aspect

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mitovski Aleksandra M.

2009-01-01

Full Text Available Life-cycle assessment (LCA presents a relatively new approach, which allows comprehensive environmental consequences analysis of a product system over its entire life. This analysis is increasingly being used in the industry, as a tool for investigation of the influence of the product system on the environment, and serves as a protection and prevention tool in ecological management. This method is used to predict possible influences of a certain material to the environment through different development stages of the material. In LCA, the product systems are evaluated on a functionally equivalent basis, which, in this case, was 1000 cubic centimeters of an alloy. Two of the LCA phases, life-cycle inventory (LCA and life-cycle impact assessment (LCIA, are needed to calculate the environmental impacts. Methodology of LCIA applied in this analysis aligns every input and output influence into 16 different categories, divided in two subcategories. The life-cycle assessment reaserch review of the leadfree solders Sn-Cu, SAC (Sn-Ag-Cu, BSA (Bi-Sb-Ag and SABC (Sn-Ag-Bi-Cu respectively, is given in this paper, from the environmental protection aspect starting from production, through application process and finally, reclamation at the end-of-life, i.e. recycling. There are several opportunities for reducing the overall environmental and human health impacts of solder used in electronics manufacturing based on the results of the LCA, such as: using secondary metals reclaimed through post-industrial recycling; power consumption reducing by replacing older, less efficient reflow assembly equipment, or by optimizing the current equipment to perform at the elevated temperatures required for lead-free soldering, etc. The LCA analysis was done comparatively in relation to widely used Sn-Pb solder material. Additionally, the impact factors of material consumption, energy use, water and air reserves, human health and ecotoxicity have been ALSO considered including

Enquiring into the roots of bioenergy - epistemic uncertainties in life cycle assessments

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Saez de Bikuna Salinas, Koldo

global warming impacts than the respective fossil fuels they replace unless planted on abandoned lands. With Papers I-II, the selection of the land-use references and time horizons involved in LCA of biofuels was demonstrated to be crucial for the characterization of the resulting environmental impacts......The research for this Thesis was originally framed around the “sustainability assessment of full chain bioenergy”. However, it is known for some years that the critical impacts of dedicated bioenergy relate to induced land use changes (LUC). Their criticality derives from their potential...... to dominate environmental impacts from a life-cycle perspective and from the uncertainty that accompanies them. On the other hand, continued land use may be a concern for soil’s long-term sustainability (understood as fertility), which has recently received attention in environmental life-cycle assessments...

Beginning LCA. A guide into environmental life cycle assessment

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Van den Berg, N.W. [ed.; Huppes, G. [Centre of Environmental Science CLM, Leiden University, Leiden (Netherlands); Dutilh, C.E. [Unilever, Van den Bergh Netherlands, Rotterdam (Netherlands)

1995-02-01

The main goal of this document is to provide practical guidance for those who want to start with Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). The document has been set up in the form of modules. Module 1 provides arguments to decide whether or not LCA is the right tool to use in a particular case. In this module other ways to study interactions with the environment will be mentioned as well. Module 2 explains the process of formulating the purpose and scope of the study. The results will give a general picture of the characteristics of the LCA. The next step, which is called the inventory analysis, represents the largest amount of work and is split up into four parts, i.e. Modules 3,4,5, and 6. Module 3 gives guidelines and detailed examples on how to construct a flowchart of the study. Module 5 describes how to collect the required data and Module 4 how to define the system boundaries. Finally, the processing of data is described in Module 6. The result of the inventory is a list of emissions and extractions for all processes involved in manufacturing and required for the functioning of a product, service or activity during the entire life cycle. Sometimes results are so clear that you may decide to stop after the inventory stage. Usually however, it is useful to carry out the impact assessment, which is split up into two parts (Modules 7 and 8). Instructions are given on how to translate the list of environmental interventions of the entire life cycle of the product into a table with scores on environmental themes: the classification/characterization. A basic substance list that might be used is added (Module 7). Also a description showing how to evaluate the results of the classification/characterization is given, so that conclusions may be drawn on the information that has been generated (Module 8). Module 9, the last module, describes how to complete the LCA. It provides suggestions on how to present the results and indications about the improvement analysis.

The creation, management, and use of data quality information for life cycle assessment

Science.gov (United States)

Despite growing access to data, questions of “best fit” data and the appropriate use of results in supporting decision making still plague the life cycle assessment (LCA) community. This discussion paper addresses revisions to assessing data quality captured in a new US Environme...

Refined life-cycle assessment of polymer solar cells

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Lenzmann, F.; Kroon, J.; Andriessen, R.

2011-01-01

A refined life-cycle assessment of polymer solar cells is presented with a focus on critical components, i.e. the transparent conductive ITO layer and the encapsulation components. This present analysis gives a comprehensive sketch of the full environmental potential of polymer-OPV in comparison...... with other PV technologies. It is shown that on a m2 basis the environmental characteristics of polymer-OPV are highly beneficial, while on a watt-peak and on a kWh basis, these benefits are - at the current level of the development - still (over-)compensated by low module efficiency and limited lifetime...

Deployable bamboo structure project: A building life-cycle report

Science.gov (United States)

Firdaus, Adrian; Prastyatama, Budianastas; Sagara, Altho; Wirabuana, Revian N.

2017-11-01

Bamboo is considered as a sustainable material in the world of construction, and it is vastly available in Indonesia. The general utilization of the material is increasingly frequent, however, its usage as a deployable structure-a recently-developed use of bamboo, is still untapped. This paper presents a report on a deployable bamboo structure project, covering the entire building life-cycle phase. The cycle encompasses the designing; fabrication; transportation; construction; operation and maintenance; as well as a plan for future re-use. The building is made of a configuration of the structural module, each being a folding set of bars which could be reduced in size to fit into vehicles for easy transportation. Each structural module was made of Gigantochloa apus bamboo. The fabrication, transportation, and construction phase require by a minimum of three workers. The fabrication and construction phase require three hours and fifteen minutes respectively. The building is utilized as cafeteria stands, the operation and maintenance phase started since early March 2017. The maintenance plan is scheduled on a monthly basis, focusing on the inspection of the locking mechanism element and the entire structural integrity. The building is designed to allow disassembly process so that it is reusable in the future.

Life cycle assessment of fuel ethanol produced from soluble sugar in sweet sorghum stalks in North China

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ding, Ning; Yang, Yang; Cai, Hao; Liu, Jingru; Ren, Lantian; Yang, Jianxin; Xie, Guang Hui

2017-09-01

This paper describes the results of a life cycle assessment of sweet sorghum stalk (SSS)-based ethanol in North China. We determined the environmental performance of SSS-based ethanol and examined its advantages and disadvantages, as compared to gasoline, focusing on the life cycle of feedstock production, transportation, ethanol production and distribution, and use. The GREET transportation model and the method developed by the Centre of Environmental Sciences at Leiden University (CML method) were used to compile a life cycle inventory and to assess environmental impacts. Results indicate that SSS-based ethanol has advantages in terms of energy consumption, with a well to wheel decrease of 85% fossil energy and 44% global warming potential, as compared with gasoline. Abiotic depletion potential, acidification potential, and photochemical ozone creation potential were also 50–90% lower than in the case of gasoline, while human health toxic potential was 36% lower. However, SSS-based sorghum did not have advantages over gasoline in terms of life cycle cost, land use, and water consumption. Results indicate that such an evaluation cannot just consider a few types of environmental impacts, researchers should promote systematic and comprehensive life cycle assessment of ethanol to guide the development of an energy strategy for China.

Life Cycle Water Consumption and Water Resource Assessment for Utility-Scale Geothermal Systems: An In-Depth Analysis of Historical and Forthcoming EGS Projects

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Clark, Corrie E. [Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States); Harto, Christopher B. [Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States); Schroeder, Jenna N. [Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States); Martino, Louis E. [Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States); Horner, Robert M. [Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)

2013-08-01

This report is the third in a series of reports sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy Geothermal Technologies Program in which a range of water-related issues surrounding geothermal power production are evaluated. The first report made an initial attempt at quantifying the life cycle fresh water requirements of geothermal power-generating systems and explored operational and environmental concerns related to the geochemical composition of geothermal fluids. The initial analysis of life cycle fresh water consumption of geothermal power-generating systems identified that operational water requirements consumed the vast majority of water across the life cycle. However, it relied upon limited operational water consumption data and did not account for belowground operational losses for enhanced geothermal systems (EGSs). A second report presented an initial assessment of fresh water demand for future growth in utility-scale geothermal power generation. The current analysis builds upon this work to improve life cycle fresh water consumption estimates and incorporates regional water availability into the resource assessment to improve the identification of areas where future growth in geothermal electricity generation may encounter water challenges. This report is divided into nine chapters. Chapter 1 gives the background of the project and its purpose, which is to assess the water consumption of geothermal technologies and identify areas where water availability may present a challenge to utility-scale geothermal development. Water consumption refers to the water that is withdrawn from a resource such as a river, lake, or nongeothermal aquifer that is not returned to that resource. The geothermal electricity generation technologies evaluated in this study include conventional hydrothermal flash and binary systems, as well as EGSs that rely on engineering a productive reservoir where heat exists, but where water availability or permeability may be limited. Chapter 2

Environmental Impact Analysis on Residential Building in Malaysia Using Life Cycle Assessment

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ahmad Faiz Abd Rashid

2017-02-01

Full Text Available The building industry has a significant impact on the environment due to massive natural resources and energy it uses throughout its life cycle. This study presents a life cycle assessment of a semi-detached residential building in Malaysia as a case study and assesses the environmental impact under cradle-to-grave which consists of pre-use, construction, use, and end-of-life phases by using Centre of Environmental Science of Leiden University (CML 2001. Four impact categories were evaluated, namely, acidification, eutrophication, global warming potential (GWP, and ozone layer depletion (ODP. The building operation under use phase contributed the highest global warming potential and acidification with 2.41 × 103 kg CO2 eq and 1.10 × 101 kg SO2 eq, respectively. In the pre-use phase, concrete in the substructure has the most significant overall impact with cement as the primary raw material. The results showed that the residential building in Malaysia has a fairly high impact in GWP but lower in acidification and ODP compared to other studies.

Uncertainties in life cycle assessment of waste management systems

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Clavreul, Julie; Christensen, Thomas Højlund

2011-01-01

Life cycle assessment has been used to assess environmental performances of waste management systems in many studies. The uncertainties inherent to its results are often pointed out but not always quantified, which should be the case to ensure a good decisionmaking process. This paper proposes...... a method to assess all parameter uncertainties and quantify the overall uncertainty of the assessment. The method is exemplified in a case study, where the goal is to determine if anaerobic digestion of organic waste is more beneficial than incineration in Denmark, considering only the impact on global...... warming. The sensitivity analysis pointed out ten parameters particularly highly influencing the result of the study. In the uncertainty analysis, the distributions of these ten parameters were used in a Monte Carlo analysis, which concluded that incineration appeared more favourable than anaerobic...

Life Cycle Assessment in Management of Socially Responsible Enterprise

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tkaczyk Stanisław

2014-12-01

Full Text Available The following paper presents dangerous and evident phenomenon of communicational chaos in the field of environment protection and sustainable development in a turbulent external environment. It is pointed that this phenomenon gives organizations an opportunity to take pretended pro-environmental actions, such as socially critical greenwashing. As a counterbalance to those practices, a concept of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR is presented, underlining the possibility of developing honest environmental marketing basing on methods such as Life Cycle Assessment.

Life-Cycle Assessment of a Distributed-Scale Thermochemical Bioenergy Conversion System

Science.gov (United States)

Hongmei Gu; Richard Bergman

2016-01-01

Expanding bioenergy production from woody biomass has the potential to decrease net greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and improve the energy security of the United States. Science-based and internationally accepted life-cycle assessment (LCA) is an effective tool for policy makers to make scientifically informed decisions on expanding renewable energy production from...

Comparison between major repair and replacement options for a bridge deck life cycle assessment: A case study

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Abu Dabous Saleh

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Material production, manufacturing, transportation, usage, and end of lifeprocessing are usually the main contributors defining the life cycle assessment (LCA. Bridge infrastructure is important to the economy and the society. Over their life cycle, highway bridges experience several stressors that can significantly affect their structural performance and therefore require rehabilitation. This paper discusses the life cycle analysis of bridge rehabilitation decisions and demonstrates the analysis with a case study of a bridge located in Ontario, Canada. The LCA of the bridge deck is analyzed for two rehabilitation strategies: major repair and replacement. The study focuses on evaluating the different life cycle phases of the bridge deck by assessing their carbon dioxide emission, energy consumption and cost. Also, the paper presents the impact of the different elements within each phase to identify the most contributing elements. The LCA of the bridge deck is analyzed and estimated with the aid of CES EduPack 2016 software that includes a database of more than 4000 different materials and more than 200 manufacturing processes. Analysis of the case study shows that material phase causes significant life cycle impact. The study concluded that the deck replacement yields higher environmental impact and life cycle cost compared to repairing and strengthening the deck.

Life Cycle Assessment of pretreatment technologies for anaerobic digestion of source-separated organic household waste

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Naroznova, Irina; Møller, Jacob; Scheutz, Charlotte

2013-01-01

The environmental performance of two pretreatment technologies for source-separated organic waste was compared using life cycle assessment (LCA). An innovative pulping process where source-separated organic waste is pulped with cold water forming a volatile solid rich biopulp was compared to a more...... including a number of non-toxic and toxic impact categories were assessed. No big difference in the overall performance of the two technologies was observed. The difference for the separate life cycle steps was, however, more pronounced. More efficient material transfer in the scenario with waste pulping...

Model of environmental life cycle assessment for coal mining operations.

Science.gov (United States)

Burchart-Korol, Dorota; Fugiel, Agata; Czaplicka-Kolarz, Krystyna; Turek, Marian

2016-08-15

This paper presents a novel approach to environmental assessment of coal mining operations, which enables assessment of the factors that are both directly and indirectly affecting the environment and are associated with the production of raw materials and energy used in processes. The primary novelty of the paper is the development of a computational environmental life cycle assessment (LCA) model for coal mining operations and the application of the model for coal mining operations in Poland. The LCA model enables the assessment of environmental indicators for all identified unit processes in hard coal mines with the life cycle approach. The proposed model enables the assessment of greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) based on the IPCC method and the assessment of damage categories, such as human health, ecosystems and resources based on the ReCiPe method. The model enables the assessment of GHGs for hard coal mining operations in three time frames: 20, 100 and 500years. The model was used to evaluate the coal mines in Poland. It was demonstrated that the largest environmental impacts in damage categories were associated with the use of fossil fuels, methane emissions and the use of electricity, processing of wastes, heat, and steel supports. It was concluded that an environmental assessment of coal mining operations, apart from direct influence from processing waste, methane emissions and drainage water, should include the use of electricity, heat and steel, particularly for steel supports. Because the model allows the comparison of environmental impact assessment for various unit processes, it can be used for all hard coal mines, not only in Poland but also in the world. This development is an important step forward in the study of the impacts of fossil fuels on the environment with the potential to mitigate the impact of the coal industry on the environment. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Technical data for waste incineration - background for modelling of product-specific emissions in a life cycle assessment context

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Erichsen, Hanne; Hauschild, Michael Zwicky

and possible recycling hereof. The assessment is based on an inventory of inputs and outputs (resource/material consumption and generation of energy and emissions) for all the processes that occur as part of the product life-cycle. A model is developed to estimate the inputs and outputs associated...... and output of emissions to the environment caused by the incineration. The work has been performed as part of the EUREKA project EUROENVIRON 1296: LCAGAPS, sponsored by the Danish Agency for Industry and Trade....

Life Cycle Assessment of Functionally Enhanced Polymers-Engineered Nanomaterials or Conventional Additives?

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Miseljic, Mirko; Olsen, Stig Irving

2016-01-01

used to enhance material properties. The aim of this study is to perform life cycle assessments (LCAs) on 5 polymer products (polypropylene air-conditioner part for cars, polypropylene garden chair, polypropylene small electrical box for houses, polyvinylchloride-wood outdoor flooring and polystyrene...

Assessing Embodied Energy and Greenhouse Gas Emissions in Infrastructure Projects

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jan Krantz

2015-10-01

Full Text Available Greenhouse gas (GHG emissions from construction processes are a serious concern globally. Of the several approaches taken to assess emissions, Life Cycle Assessment (LCA based methods do not just take into account the construction phase, but consider all phases of the life cycle of the construction. However, many current LCA approaches make general assumptions regarding location and effects, which do not do justice to the inherent dynamics of normal construction projects. This study presents a model to assess the embodied energy and associated GHG emissions, which is specifically adapted to address the dynamics of infrastructure construction projects. The use of the model is demonstrated on the superstructure of a prefabricated bridge. The findings indicate that Building Information Models/Modeling (BIM and Discrete Event Simulation (DES can be used to efficiently generate project-specific data, which is needed for estimating the embodied energy and associated GHG emissions in construction settings. This study has implications for the advancement of LCA-based methods (as well as project management as a way of assessing embodied energy and associated GHG emissions related to construction.

Life cycle based dynamic assessment coupled with multiple criteria decision analysis

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sohn, Joshua; Kalbar, Pradip; Birkved, Morten

2017-01-01

the service life of the building. This case study uses both the established and the coupled MCDA assessment methods to quantify and assess the balance of impacts between the production of mineral wool insulation versus the production of space heat. The use of TOPSIS method for calculating single scores......This work looks at coupling Life cycle assessment (LCA) with a dynamic inventory and multiple criteria decision analysis (MCDA) to improve the validity and reliability of single score results for complex systems. This is done using the case study of a representative Danish single family home over...... not matter which impact assessment is applied. However, for the scenarios where other impact categories vary inversely or independently from the climate change impact indicator, such as with renewable energy production, there is need for a more unconventional method, such as the TOPSIS method...

Environmental and social life cycle assessment of bamboo bicycle frames made in Ghana

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Agyekum, Eric Ofori; Fortuin, K.P.J.; Harst-Wintraecken, van der E.J.M.

2017-01-01

This case study assessed the environmental and social impact of bicycle frames made from wild Ghanaian bamboo. The environmental life cycle assessment (LCA) of the bamboo frame was compared to the LCA results of an aluminium frame and a steel frame. The results show that the overall environmental

Life cycle assessment of Mexican polymer and high-durability cotton paper banknotes.

Science.gov (United States)

Luján-Ornelas, Cristina; Mancebo Del C Sternenfels, Uriel; Güereca, Leonor Patricia

2018-02-23

This study compares the environmental performance of Mexican banknotes printed on high-durability cotton paper (HD paper) and thermoplastic polymer (polymer) through a life cycle assessment to appraise the environmental impacts from the extraction of raw materials to the final disposal of the banknotes. The functional unit was defined considering the next parameters: 1) lifespan of the banknotes, stablished in 31.5 and 54months for HD paper and polymer, respectively; 2) denomination, selecting $200 pesos banknotes; 3) a 5year time frame and 4) a defined amount of money, in this case stablished as the monthly cash supply of an average Mexican household, equaling $12,708 pesos. Accordingly, 121 pieces for the HD paper and 71 pieces for the polymer banknotes were analyzed. The results favor the banknotes printed on polymer substrate primarily because of the longer lifespan of this type of material; however, there is a considerable environmental impact in the stages of distribution, followed by the extraction of the raw materials (crude oil) during manufacturing. Regarding the HD cotton paper, the major impact corresponds to extraction of the raw materials, followed by the distribution of the banknotes. The inclusion of the automatic teller machines (ATMs) in the life cycle assessment of banknotes shows that the electricity required by these devices became the largest contributor to the environmental impacts. Additionally, the sensitivity analysis that the average lifetime of the banknotes is a determining factor for the environmental impacts associated with the whole life cycle of this product. The life cycle stages that refer to the extraction of the raw materials, combined with the average lifetime of the banknotes and the electricity required during the usage stage, are determining factors in the total environmental impact associated with Mexican banknotes. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

sensitivity analysis on flexible road pavement life cycle cost model

African Journals Online (AJOL)

user

of sensitivity analysis on a developed flexible pavement life cycle cost model using varying discount rate. The study .... organizations and specific projects needs based. Life-cycle ... developed and completed urban road infrastructure corridor ...

Green tourism supply chain management based on life cycle impact assessment

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Alexandra V. Michailidou

2016-06-01

Full Text Available Tourism is one of the most dynamic and far-reaching economic sectors in the world. Numerous different and complex activities are involved in the efficient development of tourism. These activities interrelate economic, environmental, social, cultural and political dimensions in the overall supply chain. However, apart from its key role as a driver of socio-economic progress, tourism is responsible for environmental deterioration, not only in areas popular with tourists, but also by enhancing climate change globally. This paper presents a robust method based on the Green Tourism Supply Chain Management (GTSCM concept, which can be used to estimate the effect on the environment that can be attributed to each link of the supply chain. The overall approach is based on Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA theory and corresponding models. A case study to demonstrate the applicability of this approach is presented for two large seaside hotels located in Chalkidiki, Greece. Chalkidiki is the most popular tourist destination in Northern Greece. A LCIA questionnaire was developed and input data for the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA obtained from the hotel managers. For this LCA SimaPro 8 software was used. The LCIA methods chosen were Eco-indicator 99 and CML 2001. The effect on fossil fuel consumption of both hotels due to their use of local transport and electricity was considerable but less than that needed for transporting the tourists by air to Chalkidiki. This paper clearly indicates that LCA and Life Cycle Thinking (LCT can form the basis for promoting GTSCM in the tourism industry.

Life cycle assessment of sewage sludge management: A review

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Yoshida, Hiroko; Christensen, Thomas Højlund; Scheutz, Charlotte

2013-01-01

In this article, 35 published studies on life cycle assessment (LCA) of sewage sludge were reviewed for their methodological and technological assumptions. Overall, LCA has been providing a flexible framework to quantify environmental impacts of wastewater and sewage sludge treatment and disposal...... and how they were estimated in the analysis. In order to reduce these choice uncertainties, consolidation of the modelling approach in the following area are recommended: quantification of fugitive gas emissions and modelling of disposal practices. Besides harmonization of the key technical assumptions...

Land Use and Land-use Changes in Life Cycle Assessment

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

De Rosa, Michele

2017-01-01

The assessment of Land Uses and Land-use Changes (LULUC) impacts has become increasingly complex. Sophisticated modelling tools such as Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) are employed to capture both direct and indirect damages. However, quantitative assessments are often incomplete, dominated...... by environmental aspects. Land uses are a multidisciplinary matter and environmental and sustainable development policies intertwine. Yet, LCAs mostly focus on environmental impacts excluding socioeconomic implications of land occupation. This paper investigates the limitations of current LULUC modelling practices....... Consequently, results informing land policies may be biased towards determined development strategies or hide indirect effects and socioeconomic damages caused by large-scale land acquisitions, such as violation of tenure rights, speculation and displacement. Quantitative assessments of LULUC impacts...

Life-cycle energy of residential buildings in China

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chang, Yuan; Ries, Robert J.; Wang, Yaowu

2013-01-01

In the context of rapid urbanization and new construction in rural China, residential building energy consumption has the potential to increase with the expected increase in demand. A process-based hybrid life-cycle assessment model is used to quantify the life-cycle energy use for both urban and rural residential buildings in China and determine the energy use characteristics of each life cycle phase. An input–output model for the pre-use phases is based on 2007 Chinese economic benchmark data. A process-based life-cycle assessment model for estimating the operation and demolition phases uses historical energy-intensity data. Results show that operation energy in both urban and rural residential buildings is dominant and varies from 75% to 86% of life cycle energy respectively. Gaps in living standards as well as differences in building structure and materials result in a life-cycle energy intensity of urban residential buildings that is 20% higher than that of rural residential buildings. The life-cycle energy of urban residential buildings is most sensitive to the reduction of operational energy intensity excluding heating energy which depends on both the occupants' energy-saving behavior as well as the performance of the building itself. -- Highlights: •We developed a hybrid LCA model to quantify the life-cycle energy for urban and rural residential buildings in China. •Operation energy in urban and rural residential buildings is dominant, varying from 75% to 86% of life cycle energy respectively. •Compared with rural residential buildings, the life-cycle energy intensity of urban residential buildings is 20% higher. •The life-cycle energy of urban residential buildings is most sensitive to the reduction of daily activity energy

Conceptual Framework To Extend Life Cycle Assessment Using Near-Field Human Exposure Modeling and High-Throughput Tools for Chemicals

Science.gov (United States)

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a decision-making tool that accounts for multiple impacts across the life cycle of a product or service. This paper presents a conceptual framework to integrate human health impact assessment with risk screening approaches to extend LCA to include n...

Life cycle assessment of facile microwave-assisted zinc oxide (ZnO) nanostructures

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Papadaki, D

2017-05-01

Full Text Available The life cycle assessment of several zinc oxide (ZnO) nanostructures, fabricated by a facile microwave technique, is presented. Key synthesis parameters such as annealing temperature, varied from 90 °C to 220 °C, and microwave power, varied from 110...

Life cycle assessment of Portland cement concrete interstate highway rehabilitation and replacement.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-02-01

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a tool that can be used to identify ways to decrease the environmental impact of a product or process and to inform decision makers of the consequences of changes to the product or process. LCA encompasses all aspects o...

New methodology in life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) of waste water treatment

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Larsen, Henrik Fred; Wenzel, Henrik; Hauschild, Michael Zwicky

chose among different waste water treatments? Which ones are most beneficial in a holistic perspective? Here, the life cycle assessment (LCA) approach as a decision supporting tool may help because its goal is to allow quantification and direct comparison of characteristics as diverse as energy...

Software as a bridge between theory and practice in life cycle assessment

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Heijungs, Reinout; Guinée, Jeroen B.

1993-01-01

Three mutually dependent elements are required for the application of life cycle assessment: methodology, data and software. Obviously, the design of software is determined by the methodology and the type of data available. Conversely, the development of software dictates the way in which data

Research Needs and Challenges from Science to Decision Support. Lesson Learnt from the Development of the International Reference Life Cycle Data System (ILCD Recommendations for Life Cycle Impact Assessment

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Serenella Sala

2012-06-01

Full Text Available Environmental implications of the whole supply-chain of products, both goods and services, their use, and waste management, i.e., their entire life cycle from “cradle to grave” have to be considered to achieve more sustainable production and consumption patterns. Progress toward environmental sustainability requires enhancing the methodologies for quantitative, integrated environmental assessment and promoting the use of these methodologies in different domains. In the context of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA of products, in recent years, several methodologies have been developed for Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA. The Joint Research Center of the European Commission (EC-JRC led a “science to decision support” process which resulted in the International Reference Life Cycle Data System (ILCD Handbook, providing guidelines to the decision and application of methods for LCIA. The Handbook is the result of a comprehensive process of evaluation and selection of existing methods based on a set of scientific and stakeholder acceptance criteria and involving review and consultation by experts, advisory groups and the public. In this study, we report the main features of the ILCD LCIA recommendation development highlighting relevant issues emerged from this “from science to decision support” process in terms of research needs and challenges for LCIA. Comprehensiveness of the assessment, as well as acceptability and applicability of the scientific developments by the stakeholders, are key elements for the design of new methods and to guarantee the mainstreaming of the sustainability concept.

IV&V Project Assessment Process Validation

Science.gov (United States)

Driskell, Stephen

2012-01-01

The Space Launch System (SLS) will launch NASA's Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle (MPCV). This launch vehicle will provide American launch capability for human exploration and travelling beyond Earth orbit. SLS is designed to be flexible for crew or cargo missions. The first test flight is scheduled for December 2017. The SLS SRR/SDR provided insight into the project development life cycle. NASA IV&V ran the standard Risk Based Assessment and Portfolio Based Risk Assessment to identify analysis tasking for the SLS program. This presentation examines the SLS System Requirements Review/System Definition Review (SRR/SDR), IV&V findings for IV&V process validation correlation to/from the selected IV&V tasking and capabilities. It also provides a reusable IEEE 1012 scorecard for programmatic completeness across the software development life cycle.

Job life cycle management libraries for CMS workflow management projects

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lingen, Frank van; Wilkinson, Rick; Evans, Dave; Foulkes, Stephen; Afaq, Anzar; Vaandering, Eric; Ryu, Seangchan

2010-01-01

Scientific analysis and simulation requires the processing and generation of millions of data samples. These tasks are often comprised of multiple smaller tasks divided over multiple (computing) sites. This paper discusses the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) workflow infrastructure, and specifically the Python based workflow library which is used for so called task lifecycle management. The CMS workflow infrastructure consists of three layers: high level specification of the various tasks based on input/output data sets, life cycle management of task instances derived from the high level specification and execution management. The workflow library is the result of a convergence of three CMS sub projects that respectively deal with scientific analysis, simulation and real time data aggregation from the experiment. This will reduce duplication and hence development and maintenance costs.

Life cycle assessment of construction and demolition waste management

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Butera, Stefania; Christensen, Thomas H.; Astrup, Thomas F.

2015-01-01

Highlights: • LCA of C&DW utilisation in road vs. C&DW landfilling. • C&DW utilisation in road better than landfilling for most categories. • Transportation is the most important process in non-toxic impact categories. • Leaching of oxyanions is the critical process in toxic impact categories. • Modelling of Cr fate in the subsoil is highly influential to the results. - Abstract: Life cycle assessment (LCA) modelling of construction and demolition waste (C&DW) management was carried out. The functional unit was management of 1 Mg mineral, source separated C&DW, which is either utilised in road construction as a substitute for natural aggregates, or landfilled. The assessed environmental impacts included both non-toxic and toxic impact categories. The scenarios comprised all stages of the end-of-life management of C&DW, until final disposal of all residues. Leaching of inorganic contaminants was included, as was the production of natural aggregates, which was avoided because of the use of C&DW. Typical uncertainties related to contaminant leaching were addressed. For most impact categories, utilisation of C&DW in road construction was preferable to landfilling; however, for most categories, utilisation resulted in net environmental burdens. Transportation represented the most important contribution for most nontoxic impacts, accounting for 60–95 per cent of these impacts. Capital goods contributed with negligible impacts. Leaching played a critical role for the toxic categories, where landfilling had lower impacts than utilisation because of the lower levels of leachate per ton of C&DW reaching the groundwater over a 100-year perspective. Leaching of oxyanions (As, V and Sb) was critical with respect to leaching. Typical experimental uncertainties in leaching data did not have a pivotal influence on the results; however, accounting for Cr immobilisation in soils as part of the impact assessment was critical for modelling the leaching impacts. Compared

Life cycle assessment of construction and demolition waste management

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Butera, Stefania, E-mail: stbu@teknologisk.dk; Christensen, Thomas H.; Astrup, Thomas F.

2015-10-15

Highlights: • LCA of C&DW utilisation in road vs. C&DW landfilling. • C&DW utilisation in road better than landfilling for most categories. • Transportation is the most important process in non-toxic impact categories. • Leaching of oxyanions is the critical process in toxic impact categories. • Modelling of Cr fate in the subsoil is highly influential to the results. - Abstract: Life cycle assessment (LCA) modelling of construction and demolition waste (C&DW) management was carried out. The functional unit was management of 1 Mg mineral, source separated C&DW, which is either utilised in road construction as a substitute for natural aggregates, or landfilled. The assessed environmental impacts included both non-toxic and toxic impact categories. The scenarios comprised all stages of the end-of-life management of C&DW, until final disposal of all residues. Leaching of inorganic contaminants was included, as was the production of natural aggregates, which was avoided because of the use of C&DW. Typical uncertainties related to contaminant leaching were addressed. For most impact categories, utilisation of C&DW in road construction was preferable to landfilling; however, for most categories, utilisation resulted in net environmental burdens. Transportation represented the most important contribution for most nontoxic impacts, accounting for 60–95 per cent of these impacts. Capital goods contributed with negligible impacts. Leaching played a critical role for the toxic categories, where landfilling had lower impacts than utilisation because of the lower levels of leachate per ton of C&DW reaching the groundwater over a 100-year perspective. Leaching of oxyanions (As, V and Sb) was critical with respect to leaching. Typical experimental uncertainties in leaching data did not have a pivotal influence on the results; however, accounting for Cr immobilisation in soils as part of the impact assessment was critical for modelling the leaching impacts. Compared

Using the tool of Life Cycle Assessment for evaluating processes of waste water and sludge treatment; Einsatzmoeglichkeiten des Life Cycle Assessment in der Bewertung von Verfahren der Abwasser- und Schlammbehandlung

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Gigerl, T.; Rosenwinkel, K.H. [Hannover Univ. (Germany). Inst. fuer Siedlungswasserwirtschaft und Abfalltechnik; Wiebusch, B. [Eurawasser Aufbereitungs- und Entsorgungs GmbH, Berlin (Germany)

1999-07-01

Whenever advances in waste water treatment were achieved in the past they have spelt technically more sophisticated processes for the elimination of water-toxic products. At present, waste water treatment technology faces further demands. Apart from the issue of economy and the avoidance of excessive burdens to citizens, a question increasingly raised is whether waste water cleaning processes are themselves environment-friendly. Related studies are internationally known as Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). (orig.) [German] Fortschritte in der Abwasserreinigung bedeuteten bisher jeweils technisch aufwendigerere Loesungen zur Eliminierung gewaesserschaedigender Stoffe. Heute muss sich die Abwassertechnik weiteren Anforderungen stellen. Neben der Wirtschaftlichkeit und damit der Vermeidung unzumutbarer Belastungen fuer die Buerger wird immer mehr die Frage gestellt, ob die Verfahren der Abwasserreinigung selbst umweltvertraeglich sind. Die damit verbundenen Untersuchungen werden international als 'Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)' bezeichnet. (orig.)

Life cycle assessment of bagasse waste management options

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kiatkittipong, Worapon; Wongsuchoto, Porntip; Pavasant, Prasert

2009-01-01

Bagasse is mostly utilized for steam and power production for domestic sugar mills. There have been a number of alternatives that could well be applied to manage bagasse, such as pulp production, conversion to biogas and electricity production. The selection of proper alternatives depends significantly on the appropriateness of the technology both from the technical and the environmental points of view. This work proposes a simple model based on the application of life cycle assessment (LCA) to evaluate the environmental impacts of various alternatives for dealing with bagasse waste. The environmental aspects of concern included global warming potential, acidification potential, eutrophication potential and photochemical oxidant creation. Four waste management scenarios for bagasse were evaluated: landfilling with utilization of landfill gas, anaerobic digestion with biogas production, incineration for power generation, and pulp production. In landfills, environmental impacts depended significantly on the biogas collection efficiency, whereas incineration of bagasse to electricity in the power plant showed better environmental performance than that of conventional low biogas collection efficiency landfills. Anaerobic digestion of bagasse in a control biogas reactor was superior to the other two energy generation options in all environmental aspects. Although the use of bagasse in pulp mills created relatively high environmental burdens, the results from the LCA revealed that other stages of the life cycle produced relatively small impacts and that this option might be the most environmentally benign alternative

Life-Cycle Assessment of Pyrolysis Bio-Oil Production*

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Steele, Philip; Puettmann, Maureen E.; Penmetsa, Venkata Kanthi; Cooper, Jerome E.

2012-07-01

As part ofthe Consortium for Research on Renewable Industrial Materials' Phase I life-cycle assessments ofbiofuels, lifecycle inventory burdens from the production of bio-oil were developed and compared with measures for residual fuel oil. Bio-oil feedstock was produced using whole southern pine (Pinus taeda) trees, chipped, and converted into bio-oil by fast pyrolysis. Input parameters and mass and energy balances were derived with Aspen. Mass and energy balances were input to SimaPro to determine the environmental performance of bio-oil compared with residual fuel oil as a heating fuel. Equivalent functional units of 1 MJ were used for demonstrating environmental preference in impact categories, such as fossil fuel use and global warming potential. Results showed near carbon neutrality of the bio-oil. Substituting bio-oil for residual fuel oil, based on the relative carbon emissions of the two fuels, estimated a reduction in CO2 emissions by 0.075 kg CO2 per MJ of fuel combustion or a 70 percent reduction in emission over residual fuel oil. The bio-oil production life-cycle stage consumed 92 percent of the total cradle-to-grave energy requirements, while feedstock collection, preparation, and transportation consumed 4 percent each. This model provides a framework to better understand the major factors affecting greenhouse gas emissions related to bio-oil production and conversion to boiler fuel during fast pyrolysis.

Life Cycle Collection Management

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Helen Shenton

2003-09-01

Full Text Available Life cycle collection management is a way of taking a long-term approach to the responsible stewardship of the British Library's collections and is one of the Library's strategic strands. It defines the different stages in a collection item's existence over time. These stages range from selection and acquisitions processing, cataloguing and press marking, through to preventive conservation, storage and retrieval. Life cycle collection management seeks to identify the costs of each stage in order to show the economic interdependencies between the phases over time. It thereby aims to demonstrate the long-term consequences of what the library takes into its collections, by making explicit the financial and other implications of decisions made at the beginning of the life cycle for the next 100 plus years. This paper describes the work over the past year at the British Library on this complex and complicated subject. It presents the emerging findings and suggests how it can be used for practical reasons (by individual curators and selectors and for economic, governance and political purposes. The paper describes the next steps in the project, for example, on a predictive data model. The British Library is seeking to benchmark itself against comparable organisations in this area. It intends to work with others on specific comparison for example, of life cycle costing of electronic and paper journals, as a prelude to eliding digital and 'traditional' formats.

Well-to-wheel life cycle assessment of transportation fuels derived from different North American conventional crudes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rahman, Md. Mustafizur; Canter, Christina; Kumar, Amit

2015-01-01

Highlights: • Development of data-intensive bottom-up life cycle assessment model. • Quantification of well-to-wheel GHG emissions for five North American crudes. • Allocation of emissions to transportation fuels (gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel). • California’s Kern County heavy oil is the most GHG intensive of the crudes. - Abstract: A life cycle assessment (LCA) is an extremely useful tool to assess the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions associated with all the stages of a crude oil’s life from well-to-wheel (WTW). All of the WTW life cycle stages of crude oil consume energy and produce significant amounts of GHG emissions. The present study attempts to quantify the WTW life cycle GHG emissions for transportation fuels derived from five North American conventional crudes through the development of an LCA model called FUNNEL-GHG-CCO (FUNdamental Engineering PrinciplEs-based ModeL for Estimation of GreenHouse Gases in Conventional Crude Oils). This model estimates GHG emissions from all the life cycle stages from recovery of crude to the combustion of transportation fuels in vehicle engines. The contribution of recovery emissions in the total WTW GHG emissions ranges from 3.12% for Mars crude to 24.25% for California’s Kern County heavy oil. The transportation of crude oil and refined fuel contributes only 0.44–1.73% of the total WTW life cycle GHG emissions, depending on the transportation methods and total distance transported. The GHG emissions for refining were calculated from the amount of energy use in the refining of crude oil to produce transportation fuels. All the upstream GHG emissions were allocated to gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel. Refining GHG emissions vary from 13.66–18.70 g-CO 2 eq/MJ-gasoline, 9.71–15.33 g-CO 2 eq/MJ-diesel, and 6.38–9.92 g-CO 2 eq/MJ-jet fuel derived from Alaska North Slope and California’s Kern County heavy oil, respectively. The total WTW life cycle GHG emissions range from 97.55 g-CO 2 eq

The application of life cycle assessment to integrated solid waste management. Pt. 1: Methodology

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Clift, R.; Doig, A.; Finnveden, G.

2000-07-01

Integrated Waste Management is one of the holistic approaches to environmental and resource management which are emerging from applying the concept of sustainable development. Assessment of waste management options requires application of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). This paper summarizes the methodology for applying LCA to Integrated Waste Management of Municipal Solid Wastes (MSW) developed for and now used by the UK Environment Agency, including recent developments in international fora. Particular attention is devoted to system definition leading to rational and clear compilation of the Life Cycle Inventory, with appropriate 'credit' for recovering materials and/or energy from the waste. LCA of waste management is best seen as a way of structuring information to help decision processes. (Author)

Methodology Proposal for Increasing Swift Trust within Virtual Teams in the Inception Phase of a Project Life-Cycle: Project Manager’s Perspective

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Milovanović Bojan Morić

2015-12-01

Full Text Available This paper proposes team building methodology for project managers in virtual teams as means to develop swift trust between new team members in the inception phase of the project life cycle. Proposed methodology encompasses activities within the first three days after the team formation and proposes the measuring tools for monitoring and managing trust development within the project team. Aim of this paper is to provide new insights to various decision makers potentially interested in increasing the performance of project teams operating in virtual environment, such as: investors, business owners and project managers working in virtual environment.

Improving Students' Argumentation Skills through a Product Life-Cycle Analysis Project in Chemistry Education

Science.gov (United States)

Juntunen, M. K.; Aksela, M. K.

2014-01-01

The aim of the study discussed in this paper was to link existing research about the argumentation skills of students to the teaching of life-cycle analysis (LCA) in order to promote an evidence-based approach to the teaching of and learning about materials used in consumer products. This case-study is part of a larger design research project that…

Life Cycle Assessment and Water Footprint of Hydrogen Production Methods: From Conventional to Emerging Technologies

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Andi Mehmeti

2018-02-01

Full Text Available A common sustainability issue, arising in production systems, is the efficient use of resources for providing goods or services. With the increased interest in a hydrogen (H2 economy, the life-cycle environmental performance of H2 production has special significance for assisting in identifying opportunities to improve environmental performance and to guide challenging decisions and select between technology paths. Life cycle impact assessment methods are rapidly evolving to analyze multiple environmental impacts of the production of products or processes. This study marks the first step in developing process-based streamlined life cycle analysis (LCA of several H2 production pathways combining life cycle impacts at the midpoint (17 problem-oriented and endpoint (3 damage-oriented levels using the state-of-the-art impact assessment method ReCiPe 2016. Steam reforming of natural gas, coal gasification, water electrolysis via proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEM, solid oxide electrolyzer cell (SOEC, biomass gasification and reforming, and dark fermentation of lignocellulosic biomass were analyzed. An innovative aspect is developed in this study is an analysis of water consumption associated with H2 production pathways by life-cycle stage to provide a better understanding of the life cycle water-related impacts on human health and natural environment. For water-related scope, Water scarcity footprint (WSF quantified using Available WAter REmaining (AWARE method was applied as a stand-alone indicator. The paper discusses the strengths and weaknesses of each production pathway, identify the drivers of environmental impact, quantify midpoint environmental impact and its influence on the endpoint environmental performance. The findings of this study could serve as a useful theoretical reference and practical basis to decision-makers of potential environmental impacts of H2 production systems.