INTRODUCTION TO LCA

Teknologi dan Lingkungan

Week 11-12
e.g. fertilizer life cycle
Supply Chain
DRIVERS
product information at the
consumer level
 INTRODUCTION TO LCA
Descriptive & Quantitative environmental claims
Which A4 paper is more environmentally friendly?

A B where do these
0.5 kg CO2-eq/kg A4 0.8 kg CO2-eq/kg A4 numbers come
from?

0.7 0.9

Uncertainty
0.4 0.6
Milk Orange Juice
Function unit, price, carbon tax
Quantitative Claim

Functional Unit = the measurable performance of the product system used as

the unit of reference (ISO 14040)
Life cycle thinking is a way of thinking that includes the
economic, environmental and social consequences of a product
or process over its entire life cycle
 2
BASIC CONCEPT OF LCA
LCA definition (ISO 14040:2016)
• LCA is defined by the ISO 14040 as the compilation and evaluation of
the inputs, outputs and the potential environmental impacts of a
product system throughout its life cycle.
- Product
- Environmental aspect, Environmental impact
- Product Life cycle
- Quantitative
https://eplca.jrc.ec.europa.eu/lifecycleassessment.html
Product System
 2
BASIC CONCEPT OF LCA
Goal and Scope
GOAL and Scope
State Goal:
1. intended application
2. Reasons for carrying out the study
3. To whom the study results will be communicated
4. Will the results of the study be used as a comparative statement to be announced to the
public
purpose of implementing LCA
- Identify opportunities for environmental-performance improvement of the product at various points in
its life cycle
- inform decision makers in industry, governmental or non-governmental organizations (e.g. for strategic
planning, prioritization, and/or product or process redesign)
- selection of relevant environmental performance indicators, including their measurement techniques
- Installation (e.g. implementing ecolabel schemes, environmental claims or environmental product
declarations
Scope includes:
1. Product system to be studied
2. The function of the product system
3. function unit
4. System limit
5. allocation procedure
6. impact categories, impact assessment methodology, interpretation of results
7. Data quality requirements; characteristics of the data needed for the study
8. Assumption
9. Limitations
10. Initial data quality requirements
11. types of critical review
12. Types and formats of reports
 Some important terms (ISO 14040)
• Product system: a collection of several process units, consisting of a base flow and a
product flow, to perform one or more functions, which model the life cycle of a product
• System boundary: a set of criteria to define which process units are part of the product
system
• Unit of function: the measurable performance of the product system used as a unit of
reference
• life cycle inventory: the stage in a life cycle study that involves compiling and quantifying
the inputs and outputs of a product throughout its life cycle
• Impact categories: groupings that represent environmental issues that need attention and
can be linked to the results of life cycle inventory analysis
• Hotspot: the part of the product system that makes a major contribution to the total impact
Inflow Process unit outflow

Flow

Inflow Process unit outflow

Flow

Inflow Process unit outflow

a series of process units in a product system

 System boundary
Sistem Environment

raw material
Other acquisition
system
Transport

Base flow
Production
Product
flow Energi
Supply
Base flow use

Reuse, Other
Recycle system
Product
flow
Water treatment

Base flow →directly taken from nature...--> water is taken from the river; If the water form drinking water company
(PDAM), it’s product flow
Product flow → Cars need gasoline petroleum (other systems/processes)
Functional Unit
• Function: define the use intended and the function provided by the product

• Functional unit (fu): This is a measure that allows quantification of the function
you defined. It should represent performance of the functional outputs of the
product system. It provides a reference to which inputs and outputs are related.

• Reference flow: The amount of product that is necessary to fulfill the function.
• function = drying hands can be done with 2 wipes or air dryer
• Functional unit= number of pairs of dry hands
• reference flow of wipes = weight of paper required to dry a pair of
hands
• drying air system reference flow = volume of hot air required to dry a
pair of hands
Example
Example of function, functional unit and reference flow
Product: beverage container, either a steel can or a glass bottle, each
containing 300 ml of beverage
Steel can weight: 10 g
Glass bottle weight: 75 g

You can define function, functional unit and reference flow of this product as:

Function: storing beverage for transportation

Functional unit: 300 ml volume

Reference flow: Steel can - 10 g, Glass bottle - 75 g

 2
BASIC CONCEPT OF LCA
Inventory
Inventory data
Data on each process unit within the system limits can be classified as follows:
1. Energy input, raw material input, additional input, other physical input
2. product, co-product, waste
3. Emission to air, discharge to water, discharge to ground
4. Other environmental aspects

Data collection steps:

1. describes a process flow diagram that describes all the process units to be modeled, including
their interrelationships
2. describe each process unit in detail, related to influential inputs and outputs
3. List the flow and operating conditions of each process unit
4. make a list of the process units used
5. describe data collection and calculation techniques
6. Document any special cases, irregularities, or other matters related to the data
Inventory Analysis definition and purpose of scope

preparing data collection

revision of data collection sheet data collection sheet
data collection
data collected
data validation

validated data allocation

includes
connecting data to the process unit
recycle
validated data per unit process reuse
connecting data to the functional unit
validated data per functional unit
additional data or data aggregation
processing units
required calculated inventory
Complete system limit

complete inventory
Sample data collection sheet
sample data collection sheet
- ISO-based principle data quality documentation
- In the software, documentation is done by filling out the data
description form
- can also provide data in excel form in accordance with the
appropriate format, so that it can be converted to facilitate
data exchange between databases
Calculation procedure
• calculate process data with functional units (matrix algebra)
• allocation of multiple processes (multiple outputs, multiple inputs,
reuse and recycling)
• aggregation of all process units in the inventory table
Allocation
• Allocation is partitioning the input or output flows of a process or a
product system between the product system under study and one or
more other product systems
• most industrial processes produce more than one product
• industrial processes also recycle intermediates or discarded products
as raw materials
• allocation procedures should be applied to systems that produce more
than one product and systems that implement recycling
* = functional unit
 Allocation procedure
allocation should be avoided by:
*dividing the process unit into two or more sub-processes and collecting input and
output data related to these sub-processes
**expand the product system to include additional functionality related to co-products

When allocation is unavoidable, system inputs and outputs should be shared between
products in a way that reflects the underlying physical relationship between inputs
and outputs
When physical links cannot be used, inputs should be allocated between products in a
way that reflects between co-products commensurate with the economic value of the
product
 2
BASIC CONCEPT OF LCA
IMPACT ASSESSMENT
IMPACT ASSESSMENT

1. Choice and definition of impact categories: Identify relevant environmental impact

categories (eg damage to human health, global warming, acidification)
2. Classification: Preliminary determination and aggregation of inventory data into several
impact groups, for example classifying various CO2 emissions into global warming
3. Characterization: translating inventory data into impact description features, original or
substituted, for example modeling the potential impact of CO2 and CH4 on global warming
4. Weighting and normalization: comparing potential impacts,
- grouping: sorting and ranking the indicators
- weighting: emphasizing on the most important potential impacts
5. Evaluate and report the results of LCIA ISO 14040:2016
Impact Assessment
 mandatory elements

ELEMENTS IN
selection of impact categories, category indicators and characterization models
THE LCIA
STAGE
LCI result determination (classification)

Calculation of the results of category indicators (characterization)

categorical indicator results, LCIA results (Profile LCIA)

choice elements

calculation of the magnitude of the results of category indicators relative to comparative

information (normalization)
grouping

weighting
 Contoh
life cycle inventory results SO2, HCl, etc (kg/functional unit)

impact
acidification
category
emissions resulting in

environmental mechanism
LCI results grouped by impact category
acidification
NOx, SO2, etc which cause
characterization model acidification

Category indicator release of protons (H+ aq)

environmental relevance

Forest
Category Endpoint Herbs/plants
etc
Characterization calculation
• calculation of indicator results (characterization) involves converting LCI results into
common units and grouping the conversion results into the same impact
categorization
• This conversion uses a characterization factor. The result of the calculation is a
numerical indicator
• characterization factors: Factors derived from the characterization model used to
convert life cycle inventory results into common units of categorical indicators
• The method of calculating the indicator results must be identified and
documented, including the choice of values and assumptions used
Factors characterizing several types of GHG
Amount x Emissions x Characterization Factor = Equivalents
the amount consumed by emissions released per the characterizing factor Total kg eq
the process (input) (e.g. unit input of the impact category
non-renewable natural (example: GWP by IPCC)
resources, fuel, energy,
etc.)
amount of emission
produced

Sregar K (2018)
GWP example
Global warming potential (GWP) is a measure of the relative strength of the
emitted radiative pulses of 1 kg of mixed greenhouse gases in the currently
integrated atmosphere over a selected time horizon (usually 20 or 100 years),
relative to 1 kg of carbon dioxide.
 2
BASIC CONCEPT OF LCA
Interpretation
Interpretation of assessment results
Identification of key issues based on the results of the LCI and LCIA stages of the
LCA:

Hotspot: The point that causes the greatest and/or significant impact from the
results of the LCA study
Hotspot analysis: steps to identify significant and/or major impacts of the LCA study
results evaluation that considers checks for completeness, sensitivity and
consistency conclusions, limitations and recommendations
Iinvestigate elements that are inherently unstable --> change the data/factors by 1% and determine
some of their effects on the results
Multiplier: The degree to which a given input parameter perturbation propagates to a given output
result
Closing
LCA can play a role in
1. determine the basic value of product environmental performance
(baseline)
2. determine the part of the product system that has the greatest
impact on the total (hotspot)
3. Determine areas of improvement
4. Improve performance/reduce impact (innovation)

environmental performance improvement --> improve product

competitiveness
Source
Modul Aljabar Training & Consulting
LCA Training