Industrial Ecology

Case studies for

LCA assignment

Alessandro DAL POZZO

a.dalpozzo@unibo.it
Case studies for LCA assignment
1. Choose one among the available case studies

2. Select a proper functional unit and related reference flows for your streamlined LCA study

3. Draw a product system and specify the main assumptions / simplifications you are adopting

4. Check available data for the unit processes from the folder “Life cycle inventory database” on Virtuale

5. Calculate the life cycle inventory for your system

6. Evaluate the environmental impacts on the following impact categories using the CML 2002 impact
assessment method: resource depletion (minerals), resource depletion (fossil fuels), climate change,
acidification, eutrophication, photochemical smog formation, human toxicity.

7. Answer the main question(s) related to the case study of your choice

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 List of available case studies
LCA of multi-component products Comparative LCAs
CASE 1 CASE 2 CASE 5

Electric cable White wall paint of Packaging of soft drinks:

(including plastic given composition plastic bottle vs. aluminium can
insulation) (including tin box)
CASE 6

CASE 3 Delivery of water to a large public building

CASE 4
Box of LEGO (e.g., our university campus):
A pair of nylon use of tap water dispenser vs. plastic bottles
building bricks
stockings
(including packaging CASE 7
(including box)
and instructions)
Hand drying at a public toilet:
electrical hand dryer vs. paper towels

LCA in civil and chemical engineering contexts

CASE 8 CASE 9

LCA of civil engineering works: LCA of processes:

a seawall flue gas flue gas cleaning technologies
reactant solid reaction
products

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 Case 1: electrical cable
Case-specific question: how much of the total environmental impacts of the cable are related to plastic insulation
and how much to the copper wire? How do impacts change by changing the amount of copper from recycling?

Suggestions on LCA set-up

• Reference flows: consider a cable with two components: the internal copper wire and a PVC insulation.
Assume the mass of the two components for a given cable length.

• Product system: consider the following production steps: the process that produces a Cu ingot starting
from i) the extraction of copper ore or ii) the recycling of electric scrap, the drawing of the copper wire, the
production of the PVC granulate, and the extrusion of PVC in tubular form

• End-of-life: consider incineration as the only disposal option for PVC. Consider that a fraction of copper
can be recycled back to production (recycling of electric scrap).

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 Case 2: white wall paint
Case-specific question: which is the contribution to the total impact of the different components of the paint?
(optional: do impacts change significantly if we use a plastic box instead of a tin box?)

Suggestions on LCA set-up

• Reference flows: consider a paint with the following composition: 30% binder (acrylic binder), 25% colour
(titanium dioxide), 25% water, 20% filler (calcium carbonate). Select a given quantity of wall paint and assume
the weight of the box needed to contain it (box made in steel tinplate).

• Product system: consider the production of all the components (one cradle-to-gate process for each
component). Consider a suitable end-of-life for the tin box.

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 Case 3: box of LEGO
Case-specific question: which is the contribution of the building bricks, the packaging, and the instructions leaflet
on the total impact of the box? How do impacts change if the LEGO factory chooses to use only wind energy?

Suggestions on LCA set-up

• Reference flows: consider a toy box with a given amount of ABS bricks, an instruction leaflet and a cardboard
packaging.

• Product system: consider the production of all the components, including the injection moulding of ABS
granulate into bricks. Consider the end-of-life for instructions and packaging.

• Energy supply at LEGO factory: consider the average EU energy mix as base case. Check what is the effect
on the total life cycle impacts if only wind energy is used.

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 Case 4: pair of nylon stockings
Case-specific question: which is the contribution of the two fibres of the stockings and the packaging on the total
impact of the product?

Suggestions on LCA set-up

• Reference flows: consider stockings with the following composition: 86% nylon 6.6, 14% elastane/lycra
(polyurethane). The box include a PET envelope and an external cardboard sheet.

• Product system: consider the production and the end-of-life of all the components, considering incineration
and recycling as options. Set reasonable fractions of recycled and incinerated materials.

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 Case 5: packaging of soft drink
Case-specific question: which is the most environmentally-friendly packaging between bottles and cans? For the
worst of the two alternatives, which is the most critical stage of the life cycle in terms of impacts?

Suggestions on LCA set-up

• Reference flows: consider a PET plastic bottle with a HDPE cap and a can made in aluminium. Select the
proper reference flows to fulfil the same functional unit.

• Product system: consider the production of the packaging, including the relevant transformation processes
(PET granulate to bottle by injection moulding, aluminium ingot to can by sheet rolling). The production of
aluminium can come in part from primary resources and in part from scraps (secondary Al): see suggestions
on end-of-life.

• End-of-life: simplify the system considering only incineration as disposal option. Consider a fraction of
recycling for waste cans that feeds to the production of secondary aluminium.

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 Case 6: water dispenser vs. plastic bottles
Case-specific question: which impact reduction can be achieved if the cafeteria of our campus banned the sale
of plastic water bottles and installed a water dispenser instead?

Suggestions on LCA set-up

• Reference flows: take a year as reference and roughly estimate the yearly water consumption of the students
attending lectures at campus. Then:
For the plastic bottles: consider the use of PET plastic bottles with HDPE caps
For the water dispenser: consider a water dispenser based on reverse osmosis that consumes 1.5x10-4 kWh and
1.35 L of input water for each 1 L of drinkable water erogated. Consider that each student using the water
dispenser needs 1 personal water bottle made in aluminium.

• Product system: consider the production of the PET bottles with HDPE caps and of the aluminium reusable
water bottles. Consider the supply of tap water and the generation of the electricity needed for the water
dispenser. Neglect the production of the water dispenser.

• End-of-life: consider only incineration for the plastic bottles. Do not consider end-of-life for the aluminium
reusable water bottles and the water dispenser.

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 Case 7: hand drying
Case-specific question: which is the most environmentally-friendly way to dry hands? For the worst of the two
alternatives, which is the most critical stage of the life cycle in terms of impacts?

Suggestions on LCA set-up

• Reference flows: consider the amount of paper towels and the time under the automatic hand dryer that are
needed to dry a couple of hands in the two cases. Consider an automatic hand dryer with a power requirement
of 800 W and simplify its composition considering that it is made by 4 kg of steel and 1 kg of ABS cover.

• Product system: consider the production of the paper towels, the production of the hand dryer main raw
materials, and the generation of the electricity required by the hand dryer.

• End-of-life: consider incineration and recycling for the paper towels. Do not consider the end-of-life for the
hand dryer.

• Allocation: consider that the production of the hand dryer itself has to be allocated to the total number of
hands that the dryer will dry during its service life (make an estimate).

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 Case 8: seawall
Case-specific question: which is the most critical stage of the life cycle in terms of impacts?
reinforced concrete
2.5 2.5
Suggestions on LCA set-up
The dotted section is
filled with boulders
• Reference flows: consider a section of
the seawall made as in the figure on the
right.
Components:
- boulders (rock) 9.5
- sand 10.5
- reinforced concrete
• Product system:
consider the
production of sand
materials, their
transport and their
installation with an
excavator.
15 3 6
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 treated flue
Case 9: flue gas cleaning technologies gas at stack

Case-specific question: which of the two alternative

reactants has the best life cycle environmental footprint? flue gas
to be treated,
Suggestions on LCA set-up rich in HCl

Background: the flue gas of a waste-to-energy plant is rich

in HCl, an harmful acid pollutant, and needs to be treated
before release into atmosphere. reactant
solid reaction
(calcium hydroxide or
products
Two alternative reactants can be used: sodium bicarbonate)

Calcium hydroxide 300% stoichiometric excess is needed

Sodium bicarbonate 50% stoichiometric excess is needed

The treatment system receives 100 kg/h of HCl and achieves a 99% removal efficiency.

Product system: trace two alternative product systems. Consider the production of the two reactants, the
residual HCl emissions at the plant, and the disposal of the resulting solid reaction products (CaCl2 and NaCl) in
depleted salt mines (typical for hazardous waste streams).

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