CHAPTER 7

LIFE CYCLE ASSESSMENT

For Green Engineering (ECH4505)
By Assoc Prof Dr. Norhafizah Abdullah
Learning Objectives
1. Describe concept life cycle analysis
2. Evaluate life cycle impact through inventory and assessment
(LCI/A)
Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)
• LCA is a scientific method for measuring environmental footprint of
materials, products and services over their entire lifetime.
• LCA is an environmental management tool.
• The International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) defines LCA as:
“A compilation and evaluation of the inputs, outputs and potential
environmental impacts of a product throughout its lifecycle”
 Full LCA
Primary
Resources

Extraction & Reuse/Re

Production Use Disposal
Processing cycle

Emissions &
Waste
 Life Cycle Stages
Product System
• Raw Material Boundary
Acquisition
Natural
Air
• Material Processing Resources
Emissions

• Production Water
Effluents

Recycling
• Use and
Maintenance Solid
Waste
• End-of-Life Reuse

Study Boundary
 Cradle-to-Gate Studies
Air
Cradle-to-gate Emissions
boundaries – excluding
downstream activities Water
past product Natural Effluents
manufacture – can be Resources
called an LCA BUT Solid
claims must relate to Waste
what was studied and

Recycling
not be overstated.
Such studies are
helpful in improving the
product supply chain
but may miss important Reuse
impacts that occur at
end of life.
Study boundary
 LCA vs. LCI vs. LCIA
• LCA: Life cycle assessment/analysis
• multi-step procedure for calculating the lifetime environmental impact of
a product or service.
• LCI: Life cycle inventory
• data collection portion of LCA
• detailed tracking of all the flows in and out of the product system,
including raw resources or materials, energy by type, water, and emissions
to air, water and land by specific substance
• LCIA: Life cycle Impact Assessment
• the inventory is analyzed for environmental impact
Uses of Life Cycle Studies
• Product comparison
• Strategic planning: on trend of product design, materials for
long term business
• Public sector uses: procurement decision, developing
regulations etc.
• Product design improvement: eg. choose supplier, improve
existing product
• Process Design
4 Phases of LCIA
1. Goal definition (ISO 14040):
• The basis and scope of the evaluation are defined.

2. Inventory Analysis (ISO 14041):

• Create a process tree in which all processes from raw material extraction
through waste water treatment are mapped out and connected and mass
and energy balances are closed (all emissions and consumptions are
accounted for).

3. Impact Assessment (ISO 14042):

• Emissions and consumptions are translated into environmental effects.
Then environmental effects are grouped and weighted.

4. Improvement Assessment/Interpretation (ISO 14043):

• Areas for improvement are identified.
LCIA
Principles and Framework (ISO 14040)

• Objectives of study
Goal and scope • Functional unit
Definition
(ISO 14041) • System boundaries
• Included and
Life excluded unit
Inventory
Cycle
Assessment
Interpretation
processes
(ISO 14041)
(ISO 14043) • Data categories
• By-products
Impact Allocation
Assessment
(ISO 14042) • Data Quality
Requirements
1. Goal Definition
The first phase of LCA includes definition of
• The purpose of the study and its intended use
• (Internal vs. External)
• The system and system boundaries
• Depends on scope of LCA
• Depends on type of product and suitability for full LCA
• The functional unit
• Quantitative measure
• Crucial for comparative LCA’s
• Data quality, the assumptions and limitations of the study
2) Inventory Analysis
• To identify and quantify the environmental burdens in the life
cycle of the activity under study.
• The burdens are defined by material and energy used in the
system and emissions to air, liquid effluents and solid wastes
discharged into the environment.
• Steps in Inventory analysis:
• Detailed definition of the system under study
• Data collection
• Quantification of the burdens
LCIA
Principles and Framework (ISO 14040)

Goal and scope

Definition
(ISO 14041) • Primary data
•Secondary data for
Life
Inventory
Cycle fuels and chemicals
Assessment
Interpretation • Modeled on computer
(ISO 14041)
(ISO 14043)
aided tool
Impact • Aggregated inventory
Assessment
(ISO 14042)
Life Cycle Inventory Analysis

Environment

System Functional
Outputs

Inputs

Emissions/
Wastes
Subsystems

A system is defined as a collection of materially and energetically connected operations

which performs some defined function. The system is separated from the environment
by a system boundary
2) Inventory Analysis

Inputs Materials Acquisition Outputs

Formulation, processing Principal Products

Materials and Manufacturing
Coproducts
Energy Product Distribution
Water effluents
Water Product use
Airborne emissions
Air Recycle, products,
components, materials Solid Waste

Other Environmental
Waste Management interactions
2) Life Cycle Inventory Analysis
• Environmental burdens (B) are then quantified for each
subsystem according to the formula

Where bcj,i is burden j from activity i and xi is a mass or energy

flow associated with that activity.
3) Impact Assessment
The environmental burdens quantified in “Inventory Analysis”
are translated into the related environmental impacts. This is
carried out within the following steps
1. Classification
2. Characterisation
3. Normalisation
4. Valuation
LCIA
Principles and Framework (ISO 14040)

Goal and scope • Linear modeling

Definition
(ISO 14041) • Site and time generic
• Global, regional &“local”
Life impacts
Inventory
Cycle
Assessment
(ISO 14041)
Interpretation • (TRACI)
(ISO 14043)
•Results aggregated per
impact category
Impact
Assessment • Optional elements discussed
(ISO 14042)
 Midpoint and Endpoint Impacts
Emissions (CFCs, Halons)

Chemical reaction releases Cl- and Br-

Cl-, Br- destroys ozone

MIDPOINT measures ozone depletion potential (ODP)

Less ozone allows increased UVB radiation

which leads to following ENDPOINTS

skin cancer cataracts

crop damage marine life damage

immune system suppression damage to materials like plastics

3) Impact Assessment (cont.)
Classification
aggregation of environmental burdens into a smaller number of
environmental impact categories, to indicate their potential impacts on
human and ecological health and the extent of resource depletion

The impacts most commonly considered in LCA are

• Non-renewable resource depletion
• Global warming
• Ozone depletion
• Acidification
• Eutrophication
• Photochemical oxidant formation
• Human toxicity
• Aquatic toxicity
3) Impact Assessment
Characterisation
• Involves the quantification of the impact of interest relative to
a reference substance. In the example we examined we look
at the Global Warming Potential of the Products life cycle
relative to CO2 emissions. Takes place using the formula

eck,j represents the

relative contribution of
burden Bj to impact Ek

eck,j value for respective

pollutant obtained from
available database
 Life Cycle Impact Assessment
Indicators of Potential Impact
Impact Category Indicator Measurement
• Global Warming kg CO2 equivalents
• Ozone Depletion CFC-11 equivalents
• Acidification kg SO2 equivalents
• Eutrophication kg PO43- equivalents
• Smog Formation kg Ethene equivalents
• Human Toxicity HTx equivalents
• Eco-toxicity ETx equivalents
• Waste kg Waste
• Resource Use kg Scarce Resources
• Water m3 Water
• Land Use being developed
3) Impact Assessment
Normalisation
• The impacts can be normalised with respect to the total
emissions or extractions in a certain area over a given period
of time.
• This can help to asses the extent to which an activity
contributes to the regional or global environmental impacts.
Should be interpreted with care due to lack of reliable data.
3) Impact Assessment
• Valuation
• Each impact is assigned a weight which indicates its relative
importance. As a result the environmental impacts are aggregated
into a single environmental impact function EI

1. Critical volume : identify key parameter, weighing their impact

2. Environmental Priority System (EPS)
3. Ecological scarcities
4. Eco Point Method
5. Eco Indicator:
1. Eco95: impact oriented, based on distance to target
2. Eco99: damage oriented, expert panel/differing perspective

Elaboration of valuation from slide 30-44

Valuation using Eco label
4) Interpretation
This phase is aimed at system improvements and innovation and
it includes the following steps:
• Identification of major burdens and impacts
• Identification of ‘hot spots’ in the life cycle
• Sensitivity analysis
• Indicates the level of reliability of the LCA
• Data availability and reliability
• Uncertainties
• Data gaps
• Evaluation of findings and recommendations
Model Interpretation
Principles and Framework (ISO 14040)

• Uncertainty
Goal and scope characterization
Definition
(ISO 14041) • Semi-quantitative
assessment of
Life parameter uncertainty
Inventory
Assessment
Cycle • Identification of key
Interpretation
(ISO 14041)
(ISO 14043)
input parameters
• Sensitivity analysis
Impact
• Scenarios development
Assessment and analysis
(ISO 14042) • Conclusions and
recommendations
 Example 1: Identify key parameter
(valuation)
• Calculate contribution of unit processes on the total emission of
each substance selected.

• Then, calculate the contribution of each unit process/emission

pair
Cont.
• Then, define Data Quality Indicators (DQI) appropriate to the
study in order to evaluate quantitatively the uncertainty of unit
process/emission pairs. Use quandrant (next slide) to obtain the
following result on type of flow:
Identify key parameter in DQI
If there are more All the key
than one, it is chosen parameters are
the one with highest chosen for the
% contribution sensitivity analysis

High

Perhaps a key Key parameters

parameter
Uncertainty

Not a key
parameter Perhaps a key
parameter

Low If there are more

than one, it is
Low Contribution High
chosen the one
with highest DQI
Example 2: . EPS Evaluation Method

Impacts Safeguard objects Evaluation Result

In: stocks
oil future costs for
production extraction
zinc

value in
health direct losses
Out: ECU
CO2
biodiversity willingness to pay
SO2
lead aesthetics
CFC
EPS: translate environmental impact into a sort of social expenditure (financial)
Example 3: Ecological Scarcities
• Valuation based on flow of emission & resources relative to the ability of
environment to assimilate the flow or extend of the resource available
Example 4: Eco-Points Evaluation Method
• A low number of eco-points is preferred.
• Environmental impacts are evaluated directly and there is no
classification step.

Impacts Normalization Evaluation Result

In: 1 / target value current / target value
energy

Out: 1 / target value current / target value

Eco-
CO2 1 / target value current / target value points
SO2 1 / target value current / target value
lead
1 / target value current / target value
CFC
1 / target value current / target value
waste
Example 5: Eco-Indicator Valuation Method
Types of Eco Indicators
• Eco95: Impact oriented, based on distance to target
• Eg:Impact of CO2 release= 1, impact of methane release = 21

• Eco99: damage oriented, expert panel

• Extension of Eco 95
• Damage to health, ecosystem, resource
Eco 95 Eco 99
Eco 95 Weighing factors
Eco-Indicator 99 Evaluation Method
Three spheres are considered:
• Techno-sphere
• Eco-sphere
• Value-sphere
Some Problems
• Life Cycle Analyses have problems and are difficult to
use:
• What is the functional unit (e.g., of a toy)?
• What if your process does not match the unit process in the LCA
database?
• Impact categorization is difficult (global warming, eutrophication,
etc.)
• No national/worldwide accounting or standardized systems

• You have to do one LCA for every product

Recognized Problems with LCA
• The major disadvantage of quantitative LCAs is their
complexity and effort required
• Designers and manufacturing engineers find it almost
impossible to practically work with LCAs because of
• the consistent lack of solid data about all aspects of a products life cycle,
• the nearly infinite amount of decisions to make and data to deal with,
• the lack of standardization resulting in numerous conversions and
interpretations,
• the lack of a standard evaluation scheme caused by and resulting in
different views on what is environmentally correct,
• the approach is currently only suitable for design analysis / evaluation
rather than design synthesis. LCAs are "static" and only deal with a
snapshot of material and energy inputs and outputs in a dynamic system.
 Future Directions on Technology
Assessment
Difference in usage:
• For designers, the inventory does not need to be exhaustive to be
useful.
• For eco-labeling, the inventory should be rigorous, easily verifiable
and periodically updated. Even so, at best, the inventory will clarify
environmental tradeoffs, rather than provide definite conclusions.

In general:
• Less information will probably be required.

• LCAs will have to be streamlined to focus on a few critical dimensions of

a product's environmental impact, rather than all dimensions.

Software tools are becoming available, but underlying databases differ.

For example, consider different opinions about "green" in the US and Europe.
 Closing Remarks
• It is not the product, but the life-cycle of the product that
determines its environmental impact.
• Even if the life-cycle is mapped out, there still exist many
uncertainties as to the environmental impact of the
processes involved. There is still an immense lack of
reliable data.
• Also consider uncertainties caused by customer
behavior and (unknown) future process technologies.
• Knowledge about environmental systems is often highly
uncertain.
• The LCA is generally a compromise between practicality
and completeness
END