Human Ecology and cleaner production' Part 4: Life Cycle Analysis

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Human Ecology and cleaner production. Part 4
Life Cycle Analysis

• Lectures in the framework of the master degree
  course on cleaner production at the University of
  Cienfuegos (Cuba)

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Introduction

• - Need to have objective methods to assess
  environmental impacts of products
• - LCA is relatively new there is hardly a
  tradition of scientific publications

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Introduction

• Terminology
• resources and environmental profile analysis
• life cycle analysis/assessment
• ecobalance
• ecological balancing
• environmental analysis and evaluation of
  products
• First studies energy (atmospheric emissions)

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Introduction

• Today
• No general methodology
• conflicting results
• Potential of the approach in relation to
  consumer marketting, product labeling, etc.
  (environmental quality assessment of products)
  adds to a prevention policy)

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LCA is a support for product policy

• 1. Evidence on which life cycle phase(s)
  induce(s) major environmental consequences
• 2. Product improverment by realizing
  environmental benefit
• 3. Identification of the product with the least
  environmental impact in a product group

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Statistics on eco-balance studies
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LCA is

• An objective process to evaluate the
  environmental effects and resource consumption of
  a given product or a process through the whole
  life cycle

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The relation between different types of LCA
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Methodological framework of LCA
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LCA methodology
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Goal definition

• Why is the study being done?
• To define the status of environmental burden.
• To define ways of reducing the environmental
  burden on a "cradle to grave" basis.
• To guide development work.
• 4. To help support advertising claims or
  environmental

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Goal definition

• How will the study be dissiminated and to whom?
• experts
• decision makers
• general public
• stakeholders

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Scope definition

• Determines system, boundaries, data requirements,
  assumptions, limitations
• 2. Length where is the cradle - where is the
  grave
• 3. Breadth specifies the variables, the in
  depth of each step

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Functional unit

• 1. Basic for comparison
• 2. Examples
• - unit of surface area covered by paint for a
  defined period of time
• - packaging used to deliver 1 liter of
  beverage
• - amount of detergent necessary for a standard
  household wash
• 3. Entails options

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Data quality assessment

• Frequently obscure
• 2. Should be an integral part of the study
• 3. Key indicators
• - age
• - frequency and method of collection
• - representativeness
• - accurancy
• - uncertainty
• - variability

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Inventory - definition

• A technical data-based process of identification
  and quantification of energy and raw materials,
  atmospheric emissions, waterborne emissions,
  solid waste and other releases of a product,
  package process, material or activity

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Major phases of inventory

• Raw material acquisition and energy
• 2. Manufacturing, processing, formulation
• 3. Distribution and transportation
• 4. Use/Re-use/maintenance
• 5. Re-use
• 6. Recycle
• 7. Waste management

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The major phases include the following activities
(SETAC, 1990)

• Raw material acquisition and energy. The
  boundary for the raw material element of the
  inventory begins with all the activities needed
  for the acquisition of a raw material or energy
  and ends at the first manufacturing or processing
  stage that refines the raw material. It is not
  yet standard practice to include in life-cycle
  inventories the outputs from the acquisition of
  raw materials. These outputs (oil spills,
  agricultural run-off, and leaching of mine
  tailings) may have far more serious impacts on
  the environment than outputs from subsequent
  stages in the life cycle of the product. It is
  therefore desirable that these considerations be
  made a standard part of future inventories.

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The major phases include the following activities
(SETAC, 1990)

• Raw material acquisition and energy (2).A
  problem arises in that some of the outputs
  associated with the acquisition of raw materials
  are difficult to quantify, such as aesthetic
  degradation and destruction of habitat.
  Nevertheless, it is desirable to characterise
  these latter types of losses in some way so that
  they can be accounted for in a subsequent impact
  assessment.

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Major phases

• Manufacturing, processing and formulation. The
  processing step of the inventory component of the
  life-cycle inventory takes feedstocks or raw
  materials and converts them into final products.
  Processing begins with the initial receipt of raw
  materials and includes on-site storage and
  handling. The processing step is considered
  complete when the product is in its final
  manufactured form and transferred distribution.

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Major phases

• Distribution and transportation. These are
  features of virtually every stage in a product
  life cycle. A common attribute of both
  distribution and transportation is that, although
  they may involve a change in the location or
  physical configuration of a product, they do not
  involve a transformation of materials.

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Major phases

• Transportation is the movement of materials or
  energy between operations at different locations
  and can occur at any stage in the life cycle.
  Distribution is the transfer of the manufactured
  product from its final manufacturer to its
  ultimate end user.

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Major phases

• Use/ re-use/ maintenance (U/R/M). The boundary
  for this stage of the life cycle begins after the
  distribution of products and materials and ends
  at the point at which those products or materials
  are discarded and enter a waste management
  system. Use includes activities such as
  consumption of a product, operation of equipment,
  storage of a product for later use (e.g.
  refrigeration), preparation of a product for use
  (e.g. cooking). Maintenance may occur at the site
  of the end user or at another site. It includes
  repair activities and preventive maintenance
  (e.g. changing oil).

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Major phases

• Re-use includes on-site (e.g. home) re-use and
  off-site re-use. On-site re-use may include
  intentional re-use of a product or package for
  its original purpose or incidental re-use for a
  different purpose (e.g. storage of nails in a
  mayonnaise jar). Off-site re-use includes
  donations of used items to charities for re-use
  by another party and rental of equipment.
  Off-site re-use also includes the return of
  materials to a retailer or manufacturer to be
  re-used for their original purpose (e.g. a
  refillable beverage bottle). In this last case,
  the returned materials leave the U/R/M phase at
  the point of collection and then re-enter the
  manufacturing phase.

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Major phases

• Recycle. The recycling stage encompasses all
  activities necessary to take material out of the
  waste management system and deliver it to the
  manufacturing-processing stage. Recycling begins
  when a discarded material or product is delivered
  to a collection system for the purpose of
  recycling (e.g. when a bottle is placed in a
  curbside bin in a community that has curbside
  collection for recycling or is taken to a
  drop-off recycling centre). Recycling thus
  includes the collection and handling of the
  materials plus any processing (washing, crushing,
  baling).

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Major phases

• Waste Management. Waste streams are generated at
  each phase in the life cycle. Waste is any
  material released to any environmental component
  (air, water or land). Waste management systems
  include any mechanisms for treating or handling
  waste prior to its release to the environment.

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Output from inventory analysis

• Energy
• 2. Atmospheric emissions
• 3. Waterborne emissions
• 4. Solid waste

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The model of critical air and water volumes (1)

• This model assumes that for each pollutant
  emitted into the medium air or water a volume is
  calculated until the legal limit (critical
  volume) is reached. These partial volumes
  calculated for the individual pollutants are then
  added to a total critical volume per air and
  water.

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The model of critical air and water volumes (2)

• In order to calculate this critical volume, the
  MIC-values (maximal immission concentration at
  constant charge) indicatdd in the clean air
  ordonance (LRV) are used as limits. In case of
  lack of information, the values mentioned in the
  VDI-regulations (Verein Deutscher
  Ingenieure/Association of German Engineers) no.
  2306 and 2310 (VDI) are applied.

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The model of critical air and water volumes (3)

• Missing MIC-values are determined by
  approximation of MAC-values (maximal
  concentration of unhealthy substances at place of
  work at a daily exposure of 8 to 9 hours).

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Calculation of critical air volume per functional
unit
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Ecoprofiles of packaging materials
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Ecoprofiles of packaging materials
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Environmental profiles of the functional units of
five different milk packages systems
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Limitations of the critical volumes approach

• Can only be calculated for regulated emissions
• 2. Inappropriately combines different materials
  having different effects
• 3. Valuates only human toxicity

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Aggregation according to environmental effects

• 1. Environmental effects global warming, ozone,
  depletion, human toxicity, environmental
  toxicity, acidification, photo oxidant formation,
  eutrophication, solid waste

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Aggregation according to environmental effects

• 2. Units - global warming potential (GWP) -
  ozone depletion potential (ODP) - acidification
  units (AU) ...
• 3. Advantage meaningful environmental currency

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Impact assessment

• a technical, quantitative and/or qualitative
  process to characterise and assess the effects of
  the environmental burdens identified by the
  inventory analysis

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Impact assessment

• No fixed methodology
• 2. Most susceptible to discussions among
  different target groups
• 3. Proposed framework consists into 3 steps-
  classification- characterisation- valuation

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Classification

• Grouping of data into a manageable number of
  impact categories
• 2. 3 major impact categories resource
  depletion, human health impacts, ecological
  impacts
• 3. No standard list

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Impact categories
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Characterisation

• Aggregation in impact categories
• Relating rough data to NOEL or GWP levels
• 3. Outcome impact profile or environmental
  profile

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Valuation

• 1. Weighting of impact factors so that they can
  be compared among themselves
• 2. Outcome environmental index
• 3. Essentially a subjective process

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Improvement assessment

• in this step options for reducing environmental
  impacts or burdens are identified and evaluated

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Guidelines for improvement assessment

• minimise the use of non-renewable resources
• 2. maximise the use of sustainable resources
  (materials and energy)
• 3. minimise total use of energy
• 4. minimise the use of toxic materials and/or
  processes
• 5. minimise emissions
• 6. reinforce source reduction, reuse, recycling
  and recovery activities

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LCA application areas

• Ecolabels
• Ecodesign
• 3. Ecotaxes

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Benefits of the life cycle approach

• 1. LCA is a comparative tool it can be used to
  compare overall environmental burdens, despite
  many differences between products and/or
  processes.

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Benefits of the life cycle approach (2)

• 2. LCA is an inclusive tool it is essentially an
  accounting process, by which all necessary inputs
  and emissions for a defined system are listed and
  then totalled. This is an inclusive approach,
  since - LCA includes all components of the
  system- LCA includes all inputs to, and all
  emissions from the system

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Benefits of the life cycle approach (3)

• - LCA integrates over time i.e., all inputs and
  emissions over the whole life cycle
• - LCA integrates over space i.e. all sites
  involved
• - LCA integrates the effects of all constituent
  processes in the life cycle
• - LCA integrates all issues different methods
  of reducing the environmental impacts, as source
  reduction, re-use or recycling can be included,
  and their effects evaluated.

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Limitations of the life cycle approach

• Lack of standardisation
• 2. Availability and quality of data bases
• 3. Need for methodological development (e.g.
  impact classes, valuation, improvelemtn
  assessment, ...)
• LCA and other decision support tools

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Conclusions

• High theoretical potential and high expectations
  by different target groups (including
  environmental movement and consumers)
• 2. Inert theoretical developments
• 3. Mainly industry driven (e.g. SETAC- approach)

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Why LCA

• LCA of a lighting bulb showed that E and resource
  use during the production are only a minimal
  fraction of the E consumed during the utilization
  phase
• 2. Environmental gains can be realized by
  focusing on the use of E during the utilization
  phase
• 3. Develop alternatives such as saving lamps

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Applications of LCA

• Analyze environmental pressure of a product
• 2. Compare different ways to improve a product
• 3. Identify points of attention for the
  development of new products
• 4. Choose between comparable products with
  different impacts (e.g. packagings for drinks)
• 5. Guarantee that products meet specified
  criteria and/or do not put too much pressure on
  the environment (e.g. environmental labels)
• 6. Communication of environmental effects to
  consumers (e.g. reliable commercials)

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Definition of LCA

• Life-Cycle Assessment is a process to evaluate
  the environmental burdens associated with a
  product, process, or activity by identifying and
  quantifying energy and materials used and wastes
  released to the environment to assess the impact
  of those energy and material uses and releases to
  the environment and to identify and evaluate
  opportunities to affect environmental
  improvements. The assessment includes he entire
  life cycle of the product, process, or activity,
  encompassing extracting and processing raw
  materials manufacturing, transportation and
  distribution use, re-use, maintenance, recycling
  and final disposal.

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Essentials in the LCA definition

• Evaluation of environmental impact
• 2. Holistic - global view on environmental
  impacts
• 3. ISO 14040

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Limitations of LCAs

• Environmental effects cannot be added gtlt holistic
  character of LCAs
• 2. Data outdate fast
• 3. Strong local effects
• 4. Scope definition - externalization of effects
• 5. Unfinished methodology

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LCA for packaging
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LCA for packaging

• Goal Determine if one-way packaging systems
  with return fee to be introduced on the market
  for soft drinks and water on the Dutch home
  market causes a lower or equal environmental
  burden in comparison with the present or future
  returnable packaging systems with return fees

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LCA for packaging

• Functional unit Packaging and distribution of
  1800 liter soft drinks and/or water in 1.5 liter
  bottles with return fund via Dutch retailers to
  the consumer, measured at the moment of sales to
  the consumer.
• Criteria for selection of systems
• - At least a prototype has to be available
• - Systems must be technically and economically
• feasible
• - Implementation must be feasible on short notice

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LCA for packaging

• Description of scenarios
• Current return system refillable PET bottle
• (b) Future improved return system refillable PET
  bottle, one supplier with 20 recyclate
• (c) Future one-way system one-layer PET bottle
  with 50 recyclate (remainder used in other
  applications)

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Impact assessment result

• Calculating theme scores and normalized on
  Dutch level, no weighting

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Conclusion for this case

• (Improved) returnable scheme better or equal for
  all themes than one-way
• - Short trip distances (typical Dutch)
• - Cleaning etc. gives apparently less
  environmental problems than making new bottles
• - No bottle available from 100 recycled PET

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LCA - ISO 14040 series

• 1. ISO 14040 life cycle assessment principles
  and framework
• 2. ISO 14041 LCA - goal and scope definition and
  inventory analysis
• 3. ISO 14042/3 LCA - impact assessment and
  interpretation

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LCA - methodology according to ISO 14040