Life Cycle Assessment

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By-SHIVAM SHARMA
Subject-CAD/CAM/CIM
Mechanical Department
SoET, Vikram University Ujjain
 Life Cycle Assessment
THE ORIGIN
In the early 1970’s, LCA’s concentrated mainly on energy and raw
materials but later air emissions, water emissions and solid waste
were included in the calculation.

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INTRODUCTION

A fundamental part in the application of the LCA is that if

a company makes and uses a LCA, in the long run is going
to the same demand to its suppliers and clients within the
commercial chain.

Generally when using a LCA causes a rain of

ideas that can help to see the problem from an
extensive point of view. The LCA is a tool of
support for the decision making.

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WHY IS IT IMPORTANT?

 Identification of improvement opportunities for environmental

aspects.

 As a decision making tool in strategic planning, priorities defi-

nition and product or process design.

 Selection and evaluation of relevant environmental perfor-

mance indicators.

 Marketing programs.

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DEFINITION
Life Cycle :
Consecutive and interlinked stages of a product or service system,
from the extraction of natural resources to the final disposal.

LCA is a quantitative process to eval-

uate the associate environmental loads

to a product, process or activity identi-

fying the use of mass and energy and

the discharges to the surroundings; in

order to determine it potential impact.

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DEFINITION
The ISO 14040 standard defines LCA as a compilation and evalua-
tion of the inputs and outputs and the potential environmental impacts
of a product system through its life cycle. The Life-Cycle Assess-
ment framework as laid down in this standard is shown below:

Princ iple s a nd Fra m e wo rk (ISO 14040)

Dire c t a p p lic a tio n:
G o a l a n d sc o p e • Pro d uc t d e ve lo p m e nt
De fin itio n a nd im p ro ve m e nt
(ISO 14041) • Stra te g ic p la nning
• Pub lic p o lic y m a king
• Ma rke ting
In ve n to ry
In te rp re ta tio n
An a lysis
(ISO 14043)
(ISO 14041)
Othe r to o ls:
Te c hniq ue s
Im p a c t Ec o no m ic
Asse ssm e n t So c ia l
(ISO 14042)
(Based on ISO 14040) Module 14
DEFINITION
The base of LCA consist of making a mass and energy balance of
the studied system.

A cradle-to-gate
manner involves all
the steps in the pro-
duction, from raw ma-
terial extraction and
transport, to produc-
tion and consumption,
to re-use or disposal.

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Goal and Scope

Goal & Scope Definition

That is to state, the reasons of the study, the information

that is expected to obtain, how it is going to be used, the

intended audience of the report, the analysis of the scope

and the limits of the system.

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Inventory Analysis

Phase of Life Cycle Assessment involving the compilation and

quantification of inputs and outputs, for a given product system
throughout its life cycle. (International Organization for Standard-
ization 1997)

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Impact Assessment

The purpose of Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA) is to assess a

system’s Life Cycle Inventory results with the aim of improving un-
derstanding with regard to their potential environmental significance.
LCIA specifically uses impact categories and associated indicators to
simplify LCI results with regard to one or more environmental issues.
An LCA shall include LCIA to help identify potential environmental
problems associated with various man-made activities.

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Interpretation
Interpretation Is a systematic procedure to identify, qualify, check
and evaluate information from the conclusions of the inventory anal-
ysis and/or impact assessment of a system and present them in or-
der to meet the requirements of the application as described in the
goal and scope of the study.

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Benefits and Limits of LCA Methodology
 Quantifying material and energy efficiency for a system.
 Identifying improvement opportunities and trade-offs.
 Illuminating hidden or unrecognized issues.
 Promoting a wider communication about how to compare and im-
prove highly complex and difficult to analyze industrial systems.

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Survey of applications

12
Number of studies

10

0
Product Process Process Evaluation of Strategic
comparison analysis options new product evaluation
comparison
Application

Breakdown of Studies by Field of Application

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