Life Cycle Assessment - Report Example

Order # 153039 LCA Report The life cycle of a product starts when the raw materials are taken from the earth, then followed by manufacturing, transport and use, and ends with waste management including recycling and final disposal. To analyze the environmental impacts from the entire cycle of products, life cycle thinking is required. The key elements of life cycle assessment are as follows: Identifies and quantifies the environmental loads involved; e.g. the energy and raw materials consumed, the emissions and wastes generated; evaluates the potential environmental impacts of these loads; assesses the options available for reducing these environmental impacts. (UNEP 2001-2003). Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a tool for the systematic evaluation of the environmental aspects of a product or service system through all stages of its life cycle. The assessment provides an adequate instrument for environmental decision support. In this paper we will use the life cycle of a kettle as our reference. The study of a kettle has used a flexible life cycle assessment (LCA) and cost model. The model has been used to assess and compare the environmental impacts and associated economic costs. Based on the standards made by the International Standards Organization, the LCA consists of four phases: The goal and scope definition, inventory analysis, impact assessment and interpretation. The phases of LCA is an interactive process, in which subsequent interactions can achieve increasing levels of detail or lead to changes in the first phase prompted by the results of the last phase. The life cycle assessment has proven to be a valuable tool to document and analyze environmental considerations of product and service systems that need to be part of decision making toward sustainability. Phases of the Life Cycle Assessment Goal and Scope definition: the product or services to be assessed are defined a functional basis for comparison is chosen and the required level of detail is defined. The steps in identifying the goal and scope includes the defining of the purpose of the LCA study, ending with the definition of the functional unit, which is the quantitative reference for the study. Defining the scope of the study includes the drawing up of a flowchart of the unit processes that constitute the product system under study, taking into account a first estimation of their inputs from and outputs to the environment ( the elementary flows or burdens to the environment). Defining the data required, which includes a specification of the data required both for the inventory analysis and for the subsequent impact assessment phase. The Inventory analysis - the energy carriers and raw materials used, the emissions to atmosphere, water and soil, and different types of land use are quantified for each process, then combined in the process flow chart and related to the functional basis. In this phase the following steps must be taken: Data collection which includes the specification of all input and output flows of the processes of the product system, both product flows (i.e flows to other unit processes) and elementary flows (from and to the environment). Normalization to the functional unit, which means that all data collected are quantitatively related to one quantitative output of the product system under study, most typically 1 kg of the material is chosen, but often other units like car or 1 km of mobility are preferred. Allocation which means the distribution of the emissions and resource extractions of a given process over the different functions such a process. Data evaluation, which involves a quality assessment of the data by performing sensitivity analyses. The result of the Inventory Analysis, consisting of the elementary flows related to the functional unit, is called the Life Cycle Inventory Table. Impact assessment, in this phase the effects of the resource use and emissions generated are group and quantified into a limited number of impact categories which there maybe weighted for importance. This aim to make results from the Inventory Analysis more understandable and more manageable in relation to human health, the availability of resources, and the natural environment. Steps should be taken in order to accomplish this: Selection an definition of impact categories, which classes of a selected number of environmental such as global warming or acidification. Classification comprises the assignment of the results from the inventory analysis to the relevant impact categories. Characterization means the aggregation of the inventory results in terms of adequate factors, so-called characterization factors, of different types of substances in the impact categories. Interpretation is the result reported in the most informative way possible and the need and opportunities to reduce the impact of the product and services or the environment are systematically evaluated. This aims to evaluate the results from either inventory analysis or impact assessment and to compare them with the goal of the study defined in the first phase. The steps are as follows: Identification of the most important results of the inventory analysis and of the impact assessment. Evaluation of the study outcomes, consisting of a number of the following routines: completeness check, sensitivity analysis, uncertainty analysis and consistency check. Conclusions , recommendations and reporting including a definition of the final outcome, a comparison with the original goal of the study; drawing up of recommendations; procedures for a critical review, and the final reporting of the results. Key Data Requirement Material - in determining the indicator for process materials all the processes are included from the extraction of the raw materials up to and including the last production stage resulting in bulk material. Production process - involves the treatment and processing of various materials of which each treatment is expressed in an appropriate unit to the particular process such as a square metre of rolled sheet or a kilo of extruded plastic. Transport process - expressed in unit tonne-kilometre. It maybe transported thru air, land or sea. Energy generation process - electricity and heat are given a unit each. This refers to the extraction and production of fuels and to energy conversion and electricity generation. An eco-indicator has been determined for high voltage electricity , intended for industrial processes. Or low voltage electricity for household and small scale industrial power consumption Waste processing and recycling includes disposal of the product. Not all products has the same manner of disposal. LCA of a Kettle MATERIALS ENERGY USE WASTE/TOXIC EMMISIONS PRODUCTION AND SUPPLY OF ALL MATERIALS AND COMPONENTS Total weight = 1100kg 20 materials including Polycarbonate (290kg) Polypropylene (419kg) PVC (105kg) Copper (186kg) 15 materials or components are transported by ship - energy for transport PVC - chlorinated waste and some mercury residue in water discharge PC and PP wastes are insignificant Copper smelting is a polluting process - air emissions = acid rain MANUFACTURING + IN HOUSE PRODUCTION Negligible Assembly uses compressed air - energy consumed is negligible Testing kettle uses .05 megajoules Wastes and emissions insignificant DISTRIBUTION Packaging uses Cardboard (520g) Paper (12g) Polyethylene (16g) Transport packaging = wooden pallets Kettles transported to retailers by truck - average distance 400km Fuel = diesel Emissions from transport include CO2, NOX, Ozone USE OPERATION SERVICING Water heated in kettle over 5 years approx. 12,775 litres Kettle used around 7 times per day - energy required to heat 1 litre is 0.355MJ Over 5 years consumption = 4084 MJ Air emissions, solid waste and waterborne waste from electricity production END OF LIFE SYSTEM RECOVERY DISPOSAL Negligible average life 5 years 20% packaging is recycled Transport to landfill site by diesel truck Additions to landfill Environmental Impact Eco-Indicators provide a simple process for designers to calculate the ecological impacts of products and services. The 'eco indicators' are numbers assigned to every material and process used by designers and can be found in a series of tables available from the Pre website (http://www.pre.nl). The process requires that the total energy and material use of the product to be defined over its lifecycle. The product elements are each quantified in relevant units and multiplied by their respective eco-indicator factors. The resulting numbers are eco-indicators, revealing which elements of the product create the most significant impacts and hold the greatest potential for impact reduction. In the production of the kettle , it is clear that the major impact is in the use of the machine, and it is to this that the designer must turn their attention. The scope and goal of the kettle is to boil the water. The materials used as well as the production is important in the Eco-indicator and the life cycle assessment. Strength and Weaknesses of the LCA LCA is primarily used by companies to support their environmental decision making. The most frequent applications are related to: design , research and development , comparison of existing products with planned alternatives, and providing information and education to customers and stakeholder. The company uses the LCA not for product innovation but for product improvement. The LCA has helped the government in maintaining the environment from hazard free by implementing the LCA throughout the land. LCA are expensive and is therefore will increase the cost of the production of the product. There is also a limited number of access and data. However there are several standards being implemented and also with connection with the LCA. To have a hazard free environment it is best to comply with the LCA to prevent further damage to the environment. Reference: 1. http://www.iere.org/InLCA/pdf/3aLandfieldSummary.pdf 2. Eco-indicator 99 manual for designers http://www.pre.nl/eco-indicator99/ei99-reports.htm Read More