Life Cycle Assessment

1
Life Cycle Assessment

• Definition of LCA according to ISO 14040
• LCA is a technique
• compiling an inventory of relevant inputs and
  outputs of a product system
• evaluating the potential environmental impacts
  of this inventory
• and interpreting the results in relation to the
  objectives of the study.

2
What is a Product System or Product Life Cycle?
Product Life Cycle
Product disposal
Raw materials mining
Primary materials production
Component manufacture
Product assembly distribution
Product use maintenance
Service
Supply Chain
The boxes are process groups called life cycle
stages (system components). The arrows are
economic material flows (relationships between
system components)
3
Life cycle assessment terminology (ISO 140402006)
Elementary flows (e.g. resource extractions)
input flows
Functional unit
Economy-environment system boundary
economic process
economic process
economic process
economic process
Intermediate flow
Intermediate flow
Intermediate flow
Product system
Elementary flows (e.g. emissions to air) output
flows
4
Life Cycle Assessment Framework
Four different phases of LCA are distinguished
Goal and scopedefinition
Interpretation

• Direct application
• product development and improvement
• Strategic planning
• Public policy making
• Marketing
• Other

Inventoryanalysis
Impactassessment
Source ISO 14040
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Inventory analysis
In the inventory analysis the elementary flows
associated with the life cycle of the product
system that generates the reference flow are
quantified. These are the material and energy
inputs and waste and emission outputs of all
economic processes that are within the system
boundaries.
Functional unit
Reference flow
Initial flow diagram
Detailed flow diagrams
Unit processes
Inventory table for each unit processes
Aggregate inventory table for reference flow
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Inventory Analysis Initial flow diagram
Definition The flow diagram provides an outline
of all the unit processes to be modeled,
including their interrelationships, which are
intermediate product flows. Starting with an
initial diagram at the level of aggregated
processes for each life cycle stage
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Inventory AnalysisDetailed flow diagram
The initial diagram is followed by detailed
diagrams, at the level of unit processes(processe
s of the system for which individual data are
collected).
Styrene production
naphta gas
styrene
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The unit process
Unit Process
INPUTS
OUTPUTS
Intermediate flows
Intermediate flows
Materials Energy
Materials Energy
Emissions to air Emissions to water Emissions to
soil
Elementary flows
Biotic resources Abiotic resources
Elementary flows
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LCA software

• Cumpan 1.2
• EcoPro 1.5 (EMPA)
• EUKLID 4.8
• GaBi 3.0 (PE International)
• KCL-ECO 2.1
• PEMS 4.0 (PIRA)
• PIA 2.0
• SimaPro 4.0 (Pre Consultants)
• TEAM 2.5 (Ecobilan - PWC)

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LCA software SimaPro
http//www.pre.nl/simapro/default.htm
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LCA software GaBi
http//www.gabi-software.com/
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GaBi 4.0

• Professional Industry use (you might work with
  this in the future)
• Academy Research use
• Lean Smaller version of the professional
• Edu Teaching
• We will use the edu version in class

13
GaBi 4.0 EDU Version

• Databases
• Example DB
• Copier DB
• Edu DB
• Work with your own copy in class copy database
  to your H drive or memory stick
• Instructions on course web page

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Structure of GaBi
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Working with Projects

• What is a project
• Activate a project
• Object list tab
• ISO documentation tab
• Saving your project

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Next Week

• Modeling in GaBi
• Plans
• Processes
• Flows
• Reading Introduction to GaBi4(posted on course
  website)