Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) II

Sri Suhartini, STP. M.Env.Mgt. PhD

Motivation for implementing LCA

Motivation for Implementing LCA (Adapted from Foust and Gish, 1996) (Bishop, 2000,
p. 253)
 The Differences of LCA Study in the Following Decision Situation
Decision Situation
Global exploration of options
Company-internal innovation
Sector-driven innovation
Strategic planning
Comparison
Comparative assertion disclosed
to the public
Source: Guinee, et al. (2002, p. 10)
Differences
The LCA study is performed to get a first impression of the
environmental effect of certain product
The LCA study is performed to assess the environmental
impact of company-internal product improvements, product
development or technical innovations.
Similar to above, except that is sector-oriented (in a formal
organisation representing a branch of chain companies, it can
be regarded as an internal activity)
The LCA study is performed to assess the environmental
impact of strategic scenarios
The LCA study is performed to assess whether a product or
system meets certain environmental standards, or whether it
is environmentally sounder than another product or system.
The LCA study aims to provide an environmental claim
regarding the superiority or equivalence of one product
versus a competing product which performs the same
function.
Methods for Defining the System Boundary in LCA
Some Example of Functional Units
Class of products, System function Functional unit
process
and services
Goods use Light generation kWh/day
Laundry washing 5 kg washed clothes
Process Gasoline production m3 produced/h
Liquid effluents Tonne of removed
treatment COD/day
Transportation Goods transport Tonne km*
Passengers Person km
transferring
* 100 kg transported 1 km.
Source: Sonneman, et al. (2004)
Inventory Analysis
• The inventory analysis is the phase in which the product system
(or product systems) is defined (Guinee, et al., 2002, p. 41)

• This involves an inventory of the inputs (such as raw materials

and energy) and outputs (such as products, by-products, wastes
and emissions) during the life-cycle (Sonnemann and Coldeway,
2005; Allen and Shonnard, 2001) (see Figure below).
The Element of a Life Cycle Inventory (Graedel, 1998, p. 23)
The Element of a Life Cycle Inventory (Graedel, 1998, p. 23)
Objectives and Target

• What are the objectives and targets?

• How these support the policies?
• How are they communicated?

SUPPORT POLICY
SUPPORT POLICY
Statement ???
Environmental Aspects

a. Preparation for scope, methods, data collection and targeted persons.

b. Evaluation of environmental aspects and impacts
c. Agreement of environmental aspects-impacts identification and evaluation result,
d. Regular review

• Is there a system procedure?

• Is there an aspects and impacts register?
• Are Aspects or Impacts prioritised-is it appropriate?
• How aspects and impacts are maintained?
• Are there operational procedure for aspects and impacts?

Aspects Impacts
Waste generation Land pollution, water pollution, and risks
and hazards to health
gas emission air pollution
3 important Steps in LCIA (Sonneman, et al.,
2004):
1. Selection of impact categories indicators and models
2. Classification, where inputs and outputs determined
during LCI stage are classified into environmental
impact categories. For instance, methane, carbon
dioxide and CFCs would be classified as global
warming gases.
3. Characterization, where the potency of effect of the
inputs and outputs on their environmental impact
categories is determined. For instance, the relative
greenhouse warming potentials of methane, carbon
dioxide and CFCs would be identified in this step
1. Selection impact categories:
According to Lindfors et. al. (1995):

 Completeness: This means that all environmental

problems of relevance should be covered by the list.
 Practicality: This means that the list should not contain
too many categories.
 Independence: This means that double counting should
be avoided by choosing mutually independent impact
categories.
 Relation to the characterisation step: This means that
the chosen impact categories should be related to available
characterisation methods
Impact categories for example:
abiotic resources, biotic resources, land use,
global warming, stratospheric ozone depletion,
ecotoxicological impacts, human toxicological
impacts, photochemical oxidant formation,
acidification, eutrophication; and work
environment
2. Classification
 Classification is a qualitative step based on a scientific
analysis of the relevant environmental processes.
 The classification has to assign the inventory input and
output data to potential environmental impacts, i.e., impact
categories.
 Some outputs contribute to more than one impact
category, and therefore, they have to be mentioned twice.
 The resulting double counting is acceptable if the effects
are independent of each other.
 However, double counting of different effects in the same
effect chain (e.g., stratospheric ozone depletion and human
toxicological effects, such as skin cancer) is not allowed
2. Classification
 The impact categories can be placed on a scale
dividing the categories into four different space
groups: global impacts, continental impacts,
regional impacts and local impacts.
2. Classification
3. Characterisation
 Characterisation is mainly a quantitative step, based on
scientific analyses of the relevant environmental processes.
 It has to assign the relative contribution of each input and
output to the selected impact categories.
 The potential contribution of each input and output to the
environmental impacts has to be estimated.
 For some of the environmental impact categories, there is
consensus about equivalency factors to be used in the
estimation of the total impact (e.g., global warming
potentials, ozone depletion potentials etc.) while for some
others there may not be any consensus (e.g., biotic
resources, land uses, etc.).
The principle of characterisation
The principle of characterisation
The principle of characterisation
Interpretation in ISO 14044
 Identification of significant issues
 Evaluation
– completeness check
– sensitivity check
– consistency check
 Conclusions, recommendations and
reporting
– critical review
 LCA Software/Consultants
 AIST-LCA  EPS
 APME  GaBi
 Athena  GEMIS
 ATHENA  GREET
 BEES  IdeMAT
 Boustead  KCL-Eco 3.0
 CMLCA  LCAiT
 Dubo-Calc  LCAPix
 EcoInvent  MIET
 EcoQuantum  REGIS
 EDIP  SimaPro 5.0
 eiolca.net  SPINE
 EMIS  TEAM
 Umberto
Impact Assessment - Common Impact Categories

Impact Category Indicator Measurement

 Resources kg Scarce Resources
 Water m3 Water
 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
 Land Use equivalent hectares
 Noise equivalent decibels
 Odor ??
LCIA usually models to midpoints (unlike Risk Assessment)

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