Life Cycle Assessment

MOOC NPTEL Course

Week-1 Material

Brajesh Kumar Dubey, PhD

Environmental Engineering and Management,
Department of Civil Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, WB, India
 A bit about me…
• Brajesh Kumar Dubey
– B.Tech (Hons) in Civil Engg; IIT, Kharagpur (KGP), India
– Worked as a consulting engineer at Engineers India Limited for 4
years, based in New Delhi, Mumbai
– Graduate work leading to PhD from University of Florida in
Environmental Engineering Sciences
– Worked as Research Scientist in Florida for 2.5 years
– Taught and did research in New Zealand (at UOA) for nearly 2
years
– Worked as a Professor in USA and Canada from 2009-2015
– Presently at IIT KGP as Associate Professor (Environmental
Engineering), focus area: Sustainable Engineering and Integrated
Waste Management Systems
– http://scholar.google.ca/citations?user=gLXcah0AAAAJ
– http://www.linkedin.com/pub/brajesh-dubey/0/883/716
– https://twitter.com/wasteprof
 Course Information
• 20 hours course
• 8 weeks
• Weekly Assignments
• 2.5 hours of video lectures per week
• Final exam – online
 List of Materials/Text Book
1. Sustainable Engineering: Concepts, Design, and Case
Studies” by David Allen and David Shonnard, Prentice
Hall, ISBN-10: 0132756544, ISBN-13: 9780132756549
2. “Life Cycle Assessment: Principles and Practice”,
Downloadable from:
http://www.epa.gov/nrmrl/std/lca/lca.html This EPA
site contains numerous resource materials
3. Life Cycle Assessment: A Guide to Approaches,
Experiences, and Information Sources, Downloadable
from: www.eea.europa.eu/publications/GH-07-97-595-
EN-C/Issue-report-No-6.pdf
 Life Cycle Assessment

MOOC NPTEL Course

INTRODUCTION

Brajesh Kumar Dubey, PhD

Environmental Engineering and Management,
Department of Civil Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, WB, India
 Introduction
• Environmental and Natural Resources have gained
increasing prominence in later half of 20th century
• Growing population, affluence have increased pressure
on air, water, arable land and raw materials
• Concern over the ability of natural resources and
environmental systems to support the needs and wants
of global populations, now and in the future, is part of
an emerging awareness of the concept of sustainability
 Sustainability is:

"..development that meets the needs of

the present without compromising the
ability of future generations to meet their
own needs"
Brundtland Commission
 Sustainability
• Powerful, but abstract concept
• Engineering
– Incorporate sustainability in products, processes and
systems
– Integration of environmental, economic and social
factors in design
• Converting the concepts into quantitative design tools
and performance metrics that can be applied in
engineering design is a challenge
 The magnitude of sustainability challenge

• IPAT Equation
I = P*A*T
The equation relates impact (I) to population (P), affluence (A),
and technology (T)

• To grasp the magnitude of the pressures on resources and

ecosystems, this conceptual equation is attributed to Ehrlich
and Holdren (1971)
The magnitude of sustainability challenge
• World population: increasing at rate of 1 – 2% peaking at
around 10 billion
• Affluence : GDP growth (max around 8 %), average 2 to 4%
• If these trends continue for several decades, compound
growth will lead to world economic output (P*A) will increase
by 50% in 10 years and around 300% in 25 years and by more
than a factor of 10 in 50 years
• Invoking IPAT equation, if technology remain static energy
use, material use and environmental impact will grow 10
times in 50 years
• We need to reduce impact of technology by a factor of 10 to
support 10 billion people all aspiring to better living standard
 Energy
• Required for all economic activity

World energy use in quadrillion (1015)BTU (quads)

Energy sources and uses in the USA, expressed in quads/yr
 Energy loses
• Loss is in electric power generation
• Fossil fuel burning to heat– converted to
mechanical work (turning a generator with
steam made from the heat from burning the
fuel)
• Waste heat– released as hot water and hot
gases
Energy
Efficiency

percentage of
energy input
that does
useful work in
an energy
conversion
system

www.bio.miami.edu/beck/esc101/Chapter14&15.ppt
Efficiency of Some Common Devices
Device Efficiency (%)
 Dry-cell flashlight battery 90
 Home gas furnace 85
 Storage battery 70
 Home oil furnace 65
 Small electric motor 62
 Steam power plant 38
 Diesel engine 38
 High-intensity lamp 32
 Automobile engine 25
 Fluorescent lamp 22
 Incandescent lamp 4
Compounding losses
 Efficiency of energy use
• Engineers have continuously improved energy
required per unit of economic output in both
developed and developing economies
• Improving energy efficiency can reduce costs
and conserve natural resources
• It can also reduce environmental impacts
Environmental impacts associated with
energy consumption
• Fossil fuel combustion releases CO2 (global
warming)
• Combustion also releases oxides of nitrogen and
for some fuels sulphur into air
• Photochemical reactions converts them to
ground level ozone and acid rain
• Hydropower generation causes land inundation,
habitat destruction and alternation in
groundwater and surface water flow
Environmental impacts associated with
energy consumption
• Nuclear power – uranium mining and spent
nuclear fuel disposal
• Renewable fuel
– Wood (traditional fuel) – widespread deforestation
• Solar panel – energy intensive use of heavy
metals and creation of metal wastes
End of Week-1 Module-1
 Our Material World
• The foundation that underlies the world economy,
prosperity and a healthy environment rests largely
on how people extract and use the full range of
materials that come from and return to the Earth
such as wood, minerals, fuels, chemicals,
agricultural plants and animals, soil, and rock
• The world at large use vast amounts of materials
and those amounts are rapidly increasing
 Material use
• Material use is a required basis of economic activity
– Per capita materials use

Comparison of USA and world material use

Material use in USA over the 20th century (USGS, 2002)
 Material Use
• The material use in previous two figures does not
include fuel
• It does not include material that does not enter
the economy (e.g., mining overburden)
• These are called indirect material flow
• Total it is estimated that material use in
industrialized country is around 100
pounds/person/day
• Materials are limited natural resources
• Recycling of material back into economy
• In the past 50 years, humans have consumed more resources
than in all previous history.
• The U.S. consumed 57% more materials in the year 2000 than
in 1975; the global increase was even higher.
• In 1900, 41% of the materials used were renewable (e.g.,
agricultural, fishery, and forestry products); by 1995, only 6%
of materials consumed were renewable.
• The majority of materials now consumed in the developed and
developing countries are nonrenewable, including metals,
minerals, and fossil-fuel derived products.
• Our reliance on minerals as fundamental ingredients in the
manufactured products used —including cell phones, flat-
screen monitors, paint, and toothpaste—requires the
extraction of more than 25,000 pounds of new nonfuel
minerals per capita each year.
• This rapid rise in material use has led to serious environmental
effects such as habitat destruction, biodiversity loss, overly
stressed fisheries, and desertification
Projections are that between 2000 and 2050,
world population will grow 50%, global
economic activity will grow 500%, and global
energy and materials use will grow 300%.
Commenting on the effects of material resource
use on the environment, the heads of major
research institutes in the United States,
Germany, Japan, Austria, and the Netherlands
have noted that “unless economic growth can
be dramatically decoupled from resource use
and waste generation, environmental pressures
will increase rapidly.”
Matthews, Emily, et al. Weight of Nations: Material Outflows from Industrial Economies.
World Resource Institute. Washington, DC, 2000. p. v
The flow of materials
 Trends in Global Material Consumption and
Environmental Impact
 The rate of deforestation in the tropics is approximately
one acre per second.
 Half the world’s tropical and temperate forests are now
gone.
 75% of marine fisheries are now overfished or fished to
capacity.
 Freshwater withdrawals have doubled between 1960 and
2000; rivers including the Colorado, Yellow, Ganges, and
Nile do not reach the ocean in dry seasons.
 Habitat destruction has contributed to species
disappearance at rates about a thousand times faster than
normal.
 Over half the agricultural land in drier regions suffers from
some degree of deterioration and desertification.
 Trends in Global Material Consumption
and Environmental Impact
 As available ore grades for some minerals decrease,
the amounts of materials that have to be mined and
processed to produce equivalent product increases,
along with the environmental impacts.
 Persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic chemicals can
now be found throughout the food chain.
 Between 1970 and 2004, worldwide greenhouse gas
emissions increased by 70%. Most of the observed
increase in global average temperatures since the
mid-twentieth century is likely due to the increase in
greenhouse gas concentrations associated with
anthropogenic sources, including the extraction,
processing, use and disposal of materials
Framework for examining materials management
Material management approaches
 Material management vs waste management
• Materials management seeks the most productive use of resources, while waste
management seeks to minimize and/or manage wastes or pollutants.
• Materials management focuses broadly on impacts and policies relating to all the
life-cycle stages of a material or product—including such upstream
considerations as using less material, using less environmentally intensive
materials, or making products more durable, as well as downstream solutions
such as reuse and recycling. Waste management usually focuses only on what to
do with wastes once they are generated.
• Materials management is concerned with inputs and outputs from/to the
environment, including use of materials, energy and water, plus multiple
environmental impacts; it is not geographically constrained. Waste management
is concerned mainly with outputs to the environment (air, water, land) and
usually only those from waste and only where the waste is managed.
• The goal of materials management is overall long-term system sustainability,
while the goal of waste management is often focused on managing a single set of
environmental impacts.
• Materials management counts as responsible parties all those who are involved
in the life cycle of a material or product, including industry and consumers. In
contrast, waste management usually counts as responsible parties only those
who generate waste.
Lifecycle materials management approach for packaging (EPA)
 Water
• Clean freshwater suitable for agriculture, industrial uses, or
satisfying thirst is becoming increasingly scarce..
• In developed world, present total use is approximately 1000
gallons per person per day.
• Sources: surface waters, groundwater.
• While surface water is renewed on relatively short timescales,
groundwater, in some cases, is a resource that has accumulated
over very long periods of time and may or may not be replaced
at the same rate at which it is withdrawn.
• Largest uses: for agriculture, thermoelectric power (power
generation using a steam cycle), and public supplies.
• Water withdrawals involve removing water from a surface or
groundwater reservoir. If that water is not returned to the same
reservoir, the water is referred to as having been consumed(e.g.,
water lost as steam to atmosphere from a lake in a power plant)
 Where Does Our “Stuff”
Come From?
Let’s check it out with . . . .

“The Story of Stuff”

http://www.storyofstuff.com/
End of Week-1, Module-2
 Sustainability:
What Does it Mean for Engineers?
What is Sustainability?
• Meeting society’s present needs without
compromising the ability of future
generations to meet their own needs.
(Brundtland Commission, 1987)

• Humans are integral part of the natural world

and nature must be preserved.
 Triple Bottom Line Solutions

• Good for the environment

• Good for economics

• Good for society

 The 3 Pillars
• People
– Fair practices for all people and does not exploit interest of
separate parties based on money, status or growth.

• Planet
– Management of renewable and non renewable resources
while reducing waste.

• Profit
– Financial benefit enjoyed by the majority of society.
Yes, engineers are part of the problem.
We’re also an integral part of the solution.
We’re also an integral part of the solution.
We’re also an integral part of the solution.
But not if we keep designing things in the
same old way.

Engineers of the future need to think

differently.
 Traditional Engineering Design Criteria:
• Function
• Cost
• Safety

Sustainable Engineering Design Criteria:

The above plus:
• Impact on people (society)
• Impact on the planet (environment)
 Questions for future engineers to ask about
their designs:

• Will it be made from recycled materials?

• How much energy will it use?

• Will it be powered by a battery or solar cells?

• Will it be able to be recycled at the end of its useful

life?

• Will it have parts that contain toxic metals that must be

disposed of?
Examples of Sustainability Indicators/Metrics for
Engineering Designs

What criteria can we use to compare 2 engineering designs to

determine which is more sustainable?
Examples of Sustainability Indicators/Metrics for
Engineering Designs

What criteria can we use to compare 2 engineering designs to

determine which is more sustainable?

Examples include:
•Material use
•Energy use
•Water use
•Solid waste generation/ability to be recycled
•Emissions generation
•Toxic releases
•Land impact
 Sustainability and the Triple Bottom Line
The three pillars of sustainability:
• Economic
• Social
• Environmental

In the business community

sustainability is coined “the
triple bottom line”,
expressing that industry has
to expand the traditional
economic aspects to include
environmental and social
dimensions - to create a
more “sustainable business”.
Elkington 1997
 Learning Objectives

1. State (a) the concept of a life cycle and (b) its

various stages as related to assessment of
products.
2. Illustrate the complexity of life cycles for even
simple products.
3. Explain why environmental problems, like
physical products, (a) are complex and (b)
require broad thinking and boundaries that
include all stages of the life cycle.
4. Describe what kinds of outcomes we might
expect if we fail to use life cycle thinking.
 Why LCA?
• In “meeting needs of present without compromising
our ability to meet future needs”, we are faced with
some obstacles
– Corporate and social pressures
– Governmental/regulatory barriers
– Uncertain objectives/goals
– Lack of tools to measure our progress
• Sometimes our intuition is not a sufficient
framework for analysis!
• LCA = systematic method for comparing products
and policies
Re-linking cost and environment
• This is a course on sustainability
• Different definitions, but in general it refers to
economic, social, and environmental issues
being jointly considered
• Cost (economic) is only one part. We need to
understand the others also.
• LCA is the kind of tool to help do this.
• Goal: life cycle THINKING.
Source: http://www.biographixmedia.com/biology/pine-tree-life-cycle.jpg

• Normally in biology terms

Point of departure: a life cycle
 Definitions
• A life cycle of a product (a.k.a. “cradle to grave”)
begins with raw materials production and extends
to manufacture, use, transport, and waste
management
 Product Life Cycle Thinking
• Life cycle thinking expands
the traditional focus on
manufacturing processes to
incorporate various aspects
associated with a product
over its entire life cycle.
• The producer becomes
responsible for the
products from cradle to
grave and has, for instance,
to develop products with
improved performance in
all phases of the product
life cycle The life cycle of a product – and closing the
loop
 Goal of Life Cycle Thinking

The main goal of life cycle thinking is to reduce

resource use and emissions from/to the environment
as well as to improve the social performance in
various stages of a product’s life.

In this way, companies can achieve cleaner products

and processes, a competitive advantage in the
marketplace, and an improved platform to meet the
needs of a changing business climate.
Life Cycle Thinking and Pollution Prevention
Life cycle thinking expands pollution prevention to include the
complete product life cycle and sustainability. Source reduction in a
product life cycle perspective is then equivalent to eco-design
principles and what had been called the “6 RE philosophy”:
• Re-think the product and its functions. The product may be used
more efficiently, thereby reducing use of energy and other natural
resources.
• Re-duce energy and material consumption throughout a product’s
life cycle.
• Re-place harmful substances with more environmentally friendly
alternatives.
• Re-cycle. Select materials that can be recycled, and build the
product such that it is disassembled easier for recycling.
• Re-use. Design the product so parts can be reused.
• Re-pair. Make the product easy to repair so that the product does
not yet need to be replaced.
End of Week-1, Module-3
Environmental Continuum

Air

Land Water
 Ecosystem
• Everything on earth is
connected
– Living and non-living
things
– Depend on each other
– Affect each other
• Water, air, atmospheric
conditions, plants,
animals, soil are
interlinked
 WEEF Nexus
H 2O

Enviro-
Food
nment

Energy
Water and Health
– 80% of diseases in developing
countries are due to the lack of
access to clean potable water
• Pathogens transmitted through water
– Kill 25 million people every year by amoeba linked
diarrhea, cholera, and typhoid
– ~3,900 children die EVERY DAY (WHO, 2004)
• 90% of 2.2 million deaths of children under 5
• The most effective management intervention
– Providing safe drinking water and proper disposal of
human waste

Picture is from charitywater.org

 Water and Health (contd.)
• Each year more than five million people die from
water-related diseases.
– A child dies from a water related disease every 15
seconds.
• 30 % of water-related deaths are due to diarrhea.
• 84 % of water-related deaths
are in children age 0 – 14 years.
• 98 % of water-related deaths
occur in the developing world.

www.water.org, Picture is from charitywater.org

Demand for and Use of Water
Water Consumption by Sector
Worldwide Water Withdrawals
• Agriculture consumes
the largest share of
freshwater
– Industry is a major consumer
in North America and
Europe.
• More efficient irrigation
systems
• Industrial economy
– Africa, Asia and Latin
America
• Agricultural economy
• Irrigation systems not always
efficient
• Booming economy (China,
India, Brazil) will influence the
ratio.
Increasing Withdrawals and Consumption
 Individual Use
• A person needs 4 to 5 gallons of water per day to survive.
• The average American individual uses 100 to 176 gallons of water
at home each day.
• The average African family uses about 5 gallons of water each day.
• Middle Eastern and Northern African (MENA) countries are in
absolute water scarcity situation (< 500 m3/person/day).
– Kuwait has the least per capita water availability.
• 27 m3 in 1970, 9 m3 in 2001 and projected to decrease to 5 m3 in 2025
– Yet Kuwait has the highest per capita water consumption.
• 200 liters per person per day in the 1980s
• Currently 500 liters per person per day
Water Consumption in Major Cities
• The world is urbanizing.
– By 2050, 70% of the world’s population will live in
urban areas.
– In developing countries, cities grow by 5 million
residents every month.
– Expansion of slums
– Infrastructure does not keep up with the pace of
expansion.
• Lack of access to water and adequate sanitation

WWF (2011) Big Cities, Big Water, Big Challenges

Water Consumption in Major Cities
• Mexico City, Mexico
– Over 21 million people in the metropolitan area
– Domestic water use: up to 364 l/person/day
• Buenos Aires, Argentina
– Over 12 million people in the metropolitan area
– Domestic water use: 378 – 400 l/person/day
• Shanghai, China
– 23 million inhabitants
– Domestic water use: 411 l/person/day
• New Delhi, India
– Over 20 million inhabitants
– Domestic water use: 78 l/person/day (Shaban and Sharma, 2007)

WWF (2011) Big Cities, Big Water, Big Challenges

 Water Requirement/Use
• Virtual water
– Water embedded in food products
– 1,000 liters for one kg of grain
– 15,500 liters for one kg of beef
• Meaty American and European diets
– 5,000 liters of water/day
• Vegetarian African and Asian diets
– 2,000 liters of water
• Meat consumption in China
– 20 kg per year in 1985
– 50 kg per year in 2009
– Equivalent to 390 km3 = Total water
use in Europe
• Shift in dietary habits is
almost impossible to
reverse.

http://www.economist.com/world/international/displayStory.cfm?story_id=13447271
http://technology.newscientist.com/data/images/archive/2540/25401501.jpg
Food Waste is Water Waste

Godfray et al. (2010) in SEI (2011)

Food Loss and Waste

FAO (2011)
End of Week-1, Module-4
 Water and Energy

Security
•Food, military, energy

Sustainable Business
Development •Opportunities, costs,
•Sanitation, health, risks
poverty, gender

Water
Energy
Environment
•Agriculture, forest,
Policy climate

Justice
•Pricing, ownership,
equity
 Energy and Water
• Energy consumers
– Supply and conveyance
– Wastewater collection and
treatment
– Treatment
– Distribution
– Wastewater discharge
• Some factoids
– Electricity = 75% of
municipal water processing
and distribution cost
– 4% of US power used for
water supply and
treatment
Water and Energy
• Energy production needs a lot of water
– ~ 25 gallons per kWh
– ~ 39% of freshwater withdrawals in USA (excluding
hydropower demand) are for thermoelectric
plants (136 billion gallons per day).
 Water Use for Energy Production
• Electricity production is one of the largest users of water. [Example: For a
60-watt incandescent light bulb burning for 12 hours a day for a year in
111 million houses, a power plant would consume about 655 billion gallons
of water.]
• Water use efficiency (Virginia Tech Study, 2008)
– Natural gas 3 gallons/million BTU
– Hydroelectric 20 gallons/million BTU
– Coal 41 to 464 gallons/million BTU
– Liquid natural gas 145 gallons/million BTU
– Nuclear 2,400 to 5,600 gallons/million BTU
– Fossil fuel thermoelectric 230 to 270 gallon/million BTU
– Ethanol 2,500 to 29,100 gallons/million BTU
– Biodiesel 14,000 to 75,000 gallons/million BTU
• Biofuels – an irony when it comes to water
– Currently 2% irrigated water used for energy crops
– If all plans were implemented, 180 km3 of water will be needed.
Electricity consumes 20% of water
excluding agriculture
 Hydraulic Fracturing
• Natural gas is projected to increase by 30% over the
next 25 years.
• Over one million wells have already been hydraulically
fractured since the 1940s.
• An estimated 35,000 wells are fractured every year.
• Hydraulic fracturing uses a mix of water, sand and
chemical additives.
– Used on 90% of wells in the US
• Water intensive process
– 2.3 – 4.8 million gallons per well
– Once used, the water is extremely polluted and has to be
treated prior to disposal.
 Water-related
Concerns with Fracking
• Water withdrawals
– Water used in fracking may be
competing with other uses.
• Groundwater contamination
– Drilling and production
• Proper treatment of wastewater
• Truck traffic and impact on water
quality
• Surface spills
• Stormwater management
GLOBAL WATER SITUATION
 What is the Global Water Situation?
• Local water shortages are multiplying.
• Current patterns of use and abuse-the amount being
withdrawn dangerously close to the limit and even beyond
• An alarming number of rivers no longer reach the sea:
• The Indus, the Rio Grande, the Colorado, the Murray-
Darling, the Yellow River-the arteries of main grain growing
areas
• Severe and long droughts in Australia, India, Brazil and
South America
• Two years ago hydroelectric power plants did not have enough
water to drive turbines and there were repeated brownouts.
 Global Water Situation: What is
happening (contd.)?
• Freshwater fish populations are in precipitous decline
• Fish stocks have fallen by 30% (WWF for Nature), larger
than fall in populations of animals in any ecosystem.
• 50% of world’s wetlands have been drained, damaged
or destroyed in the 20th century.
• Fall in volume of freshwater in rivers: Invasion of
saltwater in delta, changing in balance between
freshwater and salt water
• Excess pumping of water from rivers feeding Aral Sea
in Central Asia led to its collapse in 1980.
• Global water crisis: Impact on supplies of food,
generation of energy, and other goods.
 Water Consumption: Global View
 Demography
 Over the past 50 years the population has increased from 3
billions to 6.5 billions.
 Water use has tripled.
 Population is likely to rise by another 2 billion by 2025 and by 3
billion by 2050.
 Demand for water would rise correspondingly or even more.
 Not just the absolute number but the habits and diets that
make the biggest difference.
 If there is no change in agricultural efficiency, the world will
need more-as much as 60% more water for agriculture to
feed the extra 2 billions mouths. This is roughly 1500 km3 of
water, as much as is used for all purposes in the word
outside of Asia. http://www.acdi-cida.gc.ca/INET/IMAGES.NSF/vLUImages/youthzone/$file/pie-e.gif
Lake Chad
Per-Capita Freshwater Availability
(2000)
 Global Water Stress
1995

2025

State Parameter 1995 2025

Population 270 mn 2.3 bn
Stressed
# of Countries 11 15
Population 166 mn 1.7 bn
Scarce
# of Countries 18 39
Water Stressed River Basins
Absolute Scarcity for 1 billion People by 2025
(Many countries will import > 10% of cereals)
 Intensifying water scarcity
Declining water tables-focus on consumption
 Water Scarcity: Causes
• 80% is attributable (Vörösmarty et al. 2000) to:
– Population rise;
– Higher food and energy requirements leading to
higher water requirements; and
– Economic development (changing habits/diets).
• In the last 50 years
– Population: from 3 billion to 6.5 billion
– Water use: Tripled
• Projections: 2025 & 2050
– Population: Increase by another 2 billion and 3 billion
– > 50% people will be water stressed or scarce.
World Population Evolution
Global Urban Population Trend
End of Week-1, Module-5