By Wong Phei YeanP81459

Life Cycle Analysis

What is Life Cycle Analysis (LCA)

• United Nations Environment Programme - tool for the systematic evaluation of the environmental aspects of a product or service system through all stages of its life cycle

• often termed as “cradle to grave”- starts from raw material to final disposal of the product

• Looks into all the processes/stages & considering environmental aspects and potential impacts of the process/stages, considering all the inputs and outputs

What is Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) cont..

• provides analysts with a quantitative data to determine and analyses the environment impact of such product / system and enable changes to be made to justify in respect to the cost and environmental impacts of the product/process.

Exp: What are the impacts of 9,000 tons of carbon dioxide or 5,000 tons of methane emission released into the atmosphere? Which is worse? What are the potential impacts on smog? And on global warming?

Background

• first developed in the 1960s which were motivated by the economic struggles

• 70s and 80s, this analytical process become less popular due to lack of standardisation

• Now LCA has been standardised within the series ISO 14040 by The International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) which is a world-wide federation of national standards bodies.

Why use LCA • Calculate a product’s environmental impact

• Identify the positive or negative environmental impact of a process or product

• Find opportunity for process and product improvement

• Compare and analyse several processes based on their environment impacts

• Quantitatively justify a change in a process or product.

Useful for decision-making

General - Product’s life :

i. Raw material acquisition : material harvesting and transportation to manufacturing sites;

ii. Processing : material processing and transportation to production sites;

iii. Manufacturing : product manufacture and assembly, packaging, and transportation to final distribution

iv. Product life : energy and emission during normal product life

v. Waste management/end of life: recyling,liquidwaste and gas emission.

Entire Systems, Cradle to Grave

Life-cycle –Identify the boundaries

4 Main Phases of LCA

4 Main Phases of LCA

1Goal and Scope Definition :Defining the goal and scope of the study and other relevant information needed.

4 Main Phases of LCA (cont..)

2 Inventory analysis: • Making a model of the product life cycle

(process diagram) with all the environmental inputs and outputs. ( The more complete the diagram, the greater the accuracy the result is)

• Data : data based on observation, quantitative research, and manufacturer information to calculate national average.

• Data validity is important! current data

www.iere.org

Life diagram

On site

Transport

Water

Production &

Processing

Generation

Pollution

Control

Material

Storage &

Handling

Maintenance

Transmission Distribution

Resource

Extraction

Processing

Manufacturing

Distributed generation

Construction &

Demolition

Disposal

Fleet Operations

System Boundary

On site

Transport

Water

Production &

Processing

Generation

Pollution

Control

Material

Storage &

Handling

Maintenance

Transmission Distribution

Resource

Extraction

Processing

Manufacturing

Resource

Extraction

Processing

Manufacturing

Distributed generation

Construction &

Demolition

Disposal

Fleet Operations

System Boundary

System Function:

kWh Delivered

4 Main Phases of LCA (cont..)3 Impact assessment:

• Understanding the environment relevance of the inputs and outputs,

• how the processes and product in the LCA impact human health and environment,

• Calculate the weights science based characterization factors = inventory data x characterization factor

Exp: if a process produces 20 pounds of chloroform, the impact indicator for the chloroform in that process is 180

• 3 categories:i.Global impact : polar melt, ocean pattern changes, ozone depletionii. Regional impacts : photochemical smog , acidification to water resources and soiliii.Local impacts : human health , terrestrial toxicity and aquatic toxicity

www.iere.org

Indicators for All Impact Categories

EutrophicationEutrophication

Typical Impact

4 Main Phases of LCA (cont..)

4 Interpretation: • Evaluating data • making interpretation and conclusion• Recommendations• Data interpretation is an integral part of

all three steps and should be done after each of the sub-analyses is completed.

Drawbacks of LCA• Using LCA to compare products is like comparing

apples to oranges. • For example, which is worse: a product that pollutes the air

by consuming energy from coal-fired power plants or one that disrupts ecosystems by consuming energy from massive hydroelectric dam projects? Both types of pollution should be minimized if possible.

•Comparison between heavy energy demand and heavy water use: which imposes greater environmental burden?

Conclusion

LCA is an invaluable tool where environmental impacts assessment is carried out on various product or systems, and by being able to quantitatively assess the environmental impacts, one can make necessary correction to decrease the environmental impacts and find a better way to make their product or system, it is then a win-win situation.

LCA helps to avoid shifting environmental problems

from one area or medium to another.

EXAMPLE

• Water Footprinting: How to Address Water Use in Life Cycle Assessment? by Markus Berger * and Matthias Finkbeiner

• This paper provides an overview of a broad range of methods developed to enable accounting and impact assessment of water use.