LIFE CYCLE ASSESSMENT:

A METHODOLOGICAL
APPROACH
 What is a Life Cycle Assessment?
A product is followed from its
cradle where raw materials
are extracted from natural
resources through production
and use to its grave, the
disposal. (Baumann, 2004)
(Simonen, 2014)
Recycling loop
(Simonen, 2014)
 What is LCA good for?

Studies a whole product system.

The results are related to the function of a product.
Engineering tool that studies technical systems and
potential changes.

Quantifying Environmentally Friendly

DECISION MAKING Product design and
development
Process design and
development purchasing
Support for regulatory
measures and policy
instruments

LEARNING Characterisation of
/EXPLORATION production systems
Identification of improvement
possibilities
Selection of environmental
performance indicators

COMMUNICATION LCA based eco labelling

Environmental product
declaration
Benchmarking (Baumann, 2004)
Engineering
Inventory Analysis

Natural science
Impact assessment

Social sciences
Weighting
 Criticism of LCA

HIRED GUN

Germany: Cellulose pulp packaging

trays

Biased studies that

favoured the product
Denmark: Polystyrene packaging manufactured by those
trays who sponsored the LCA
study
(Baumann, 2004)
 Evolution of LCA

UNEP = United Nations Environmental Program

SETAC = Society for Environmental Toxicology & Chemistry
ISO = International Standards Organization
 ISO 14040:2006
Environmental
managementLife
Cycle Assessment
Principles and
framework
LCA describes environmental aspects
and potential impacts throughout a
products life cycle, i.e raw materials
acquisition, production, use and
disposal
 Goal and scope
definition

INTERPRETATION Inventory
analysis

Impact
assessment
 Outcome of an LCA? - Environmental
information
Flows (Mass)

Endpoints
Environmental quantities
Resources Abiotic Freshwater
Deposited depletion eutrophication
good Acid potential Human toxicity
Emissions to Eutro potential Ionising
air FAETP radiation
Emissions to GWP Marine
fresh water HTP ecotoxicity
Emissions to MAETP Metal
sea water depletion
ODP
Emissions to Ozone
POCP
agricultural soil depletion
TETP
Emissions to Particulate
industrial soil matter
formation
Life Cycle Cost
Flow costs
Machine costs
Personnel costs

Life Cycle Working Environment

Qualified working time (QWT)
Health and Safety (HSWT)
Humanity of working conditions (HWT)*

*Child labour, discrimination in job access, forced labour, hazardous child labour, no
collective bargaining, no right to organise, unequal remuneration, actual women
employment.
Understanding the
simplicity and
complexity of LCA
modelling
Simplicity
Complexity
 Are all LCAs the same?
Stand-alone LCA
Used to describe a single product
Identify hot spots throughout the product life
Most common type of LCA
Can be the first rough LCA

Change oriented LCA

Comparative study
Used for product development, building design and
process choices.
Waste managing options and recycling.

(Baumann, 2004)
Accounting LCA
Comparative study
Business to business communication
Green marketing i.e Eco labelling
Purchasing
Market research
questionnaires

Business Business Consumers

Environmental product Eco labels

declaration brands (Baumann, 2004)
What are we comparing?
Product
vs.
Process
 Process

Product
Product: Life Cycle Steel Paper Clip
Process: Life Cycle CO2 capture using an
absorption process
 ALWAYS COMPARE FINAL
PRODUCT TO PRODUCT
Application Meaning
symbol
S Structural steel

STEEL
P Steel for pressure lines and vessels

TOL Steel for pipe and tube

STEEL
E Engineering steels

B Steel for reinforced concrete

R Steel for rail use

H High strength Cold Rolled

 LCA under
construction
(Niklas, 2013)
There is a new project to install a CO2 capture unit in
a power station that produces 1,273 kWh. The
capture unit will have a capacity of 1,375 kg of CO2
that will then be used to produce 1000 kg of
methanol. All operations will be on site.
Methanol will be produced by the following reaction:

CO2 + 3H2 CH3OH + H2O

The company is concerned that overall emissions will

be greater than producing methanol via a traditional
method (catalytic synthesis from syngas)
 Carbon capture
and utilisation
Products

Conventional
process
Products
(Niklas, 2013)
What if methanol from a renewable
source of CO2 pollutes MORE than
methanol from natural gas?
What if methanol from a renewable
source of CO2 pollutes LESS than
methanol from natural gas?
What if methanol from a renewable
source of CO2 could be a Sustainable
process?
Goal definition
and scope
Aim for the right
question!
a) Is methanol production from CO2 and
H2 environmentally sustainable?

b) Where is the origin of environmental

impacts in the production of methanol
from CO2 and H2

c) Is it better to produce methanol from

CO2 and H2 than from natural gas?

(Niklas, 2013)
Compare equally!
A product is comparable if both their function and their
technical performance are identical

a) Comparison of CO2 based methanol with

CO2 based minerals.

b) Comparison of CO2 based methanol with

fossil based methanol.

c) Comparison of CO2 based polymers with

petrochemical polymers.
(Niklas, 2013)
 System function and functional unit
Service provided = function
Example: drinking
container
Functional unit:
Time, extent, quality
Example:
Containers for years
worth of use of 12 ounce hot
beverage at a college.

Allows for comparison of

single vs. multiple use
containers. http://yosemite.epa.gov/r10/ECOCOMM.NSF/Programs/lca_epd/$FILE/lca_1_100809.pdf
System Boundaries

Input Process can be physical

Output
(crushing), chemical or
Materials, products, water an action Emissions to air, water, etc.
and fuels

Input PRODUCT
PROCESS
A product is a type of output

Process If a process is within the CO

system boundary, the PRODUCT
inputs, emissions and
estimated impacts from Track emissions to co products.
Processed that process are tracked
material input by the LCA
Waste
Waste is a type of output.
Not included in the LCA if
process is outside
boundaries (Simonen, 2014)
 Sample process map for a car (cradle to
grave)

http://www.ghgprotocol.org/files/ghgp/public/Product-Life-Cycle-Accounting-Reporting-Standard_041613.pdf
Inventory analysis
Life cycle Inventory data classification
OTHER ENVIRONMENTAL ASPECTS

System Boundary
Raw materials PRODUCT

Energy CO
UNIT PROCESESS PRODUCT
Ancillary
materials WASTE

Emissions to Emissions to Emissions to

soil air water
(Simonen, 2014)
Data quality indicators

http://www.ghgprotocol.org/files/ghgp/public/Product-Life-Cycle-Accounting-Reporting-Standard_041613.pdf
Allocation
When a system produces more
than one product, the inputs and
emissions are typically
proportioned to each of the
different products using an
allocation method
(Simonen, 2014)

http://www.ghgprotocol.org/files/ghgp/public/Product-Life-Cycle-Accounting-Reporting-Standard_041613.pdf
Mass allocation

Volume allocation

http://www.ghgprotocol.org/files/ghgp/public/Product-Life-Cycle-Accounting-Reporting-Standard_041613.pdf
 Mass
allocation

Economic
allocation

(Simonen, 2014)
Independent co-
products = 2
LCAs

Substracting LCA
of a co-product =
System expansion

(Simonen, 2014)
Impact assessment
(Simonen, 2014)
 Environmental information
Flows (Mass)

Endpoints
Environmental quantities
Resources Abiotic Freshwater
Deposited depletion eutrophication
good Acid potential Human toxicity
Emissions to Eutro potential Ionising
air FAETP radiation
Emissions to GWP Marine
fresh water HTP ecotoxicity
Emissions to MAETP Metal
sea water depletion
ODP
Emissions to Ozone
POCP
agricultural soil depletion
TETP
Emissions to Particulate
industrial soil matter
formation
 Characterisation

http://www.lifecycleinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Module-e-Impact-assessment.pdf
Characterisation

http://www.lifecycleinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Module-e-Impact-assessment.pdf
LCA impacts and relevance to human and
ecosystem damage
MID POINT INDICATORS END POINT IMPACTS
Acidification
Global warming Ecosystem
potential Damage
Eutrophication

Ozone depletion
Human Health
Photochemical ozone Damage
creation/smog
Human health
particulate matter (Simonen, 2014)
Ozone depletion mid point and end point
impacts
Chemical reaction destroys
Skin cancer
ozone
Cataracts
MID-POINT
INDICATOR Immune system
Emissions suppression
(CFCs, halons, Ozone depletion
etc.) potential based on
Damage to
chemicals
materials
reactivity/lifetime
Marine life damage
Less ozone allows
increased UV radiation
Crop damage

(Simonen, 2014)
 2
3

http://chainraise.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/world-1.jpg

1.- Local impact (e.g smog)

2.- Regional impact (e.g. acidification)
3.- Global impact (e.g climate change)
Characterisation

http://www.lifecycleinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Module-e-Impact-assessment.pdf
http://www.lifecycleinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Module-e-Impact-assessment.pdf
Carbon footprint
What is a carbon footprint?

Carbon footprint is the result of life cycle thinking applied to one

impact category: Global warming (Climate change).
It is not a true LCA because it only models one impact category.
Carbon footprint supports lifecycle thinking.

Why is carbon footprint useful?

Climate change is understood by many people as the most urgent

ecological impact category.
It is a direct approach that uses absolute units (Co2 equiv or GWP
It is easily communicated.

http://www.lifecycleinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Module-l-Carbon-Footprint.pdf
http://www.lifecycleinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Module-l-Carbon-Footprint.pdf
http://www.lifecycleinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Module-l-Carbon-Footprint.pdf
Classification
The assignment of LCI results to impact categories
Example: CO2 and CH4 are assigned to climate change

Characterisation
The calculation of category indicator results
Example: 5CO2 and 3CH4 yield 68 kg CO2 eq

http://www.lifecycleinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Module-e-Impact-assessment.pdf
 Optional elements: Normalisation

http://www.lifecycleinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Module-e-Impact-assessment.pdf
Optional elements: Grouping

http://www.lifecycleinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Module-e-Impact-assessment.pdf
Optional elements: Weighting

http://www.lifecycleinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Module-e-Impact-assessment.pdf
Interpretation
 How to interpret results?

http://www.lifecycleinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Module-f-Interpretation.pdf
Why use LCA software?
Available software