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Life-cycle Assessment Arpad Horvath Assistant Professor

Life-cycle Assessment Arpad Horvath Assistant Professor Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering Director, Consortium on Green Design and Manufacturing University of California, Berkeley horvath@ce.berkeley.edu. Are Paper or Plastic Cups More Environmentally Friendly?.

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Life-cycle Assessment Arpad Horvath Assistant Professor

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  1. Life-cycle Assessment Arpad Horvath Assistant Professor Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering Director, Consortium on Green Design and Manufacturing University of California, Berkeley horvath@ce.berkeley.edu

  2. Are Paper or Plastic Cups MoreEnvironmentally Friendly? Hocking,M.B.(1991),”Paper versus Polystyrene : A Complex Choice.”Science. Vol.251, February 1, pp.504-505. Lave,L.b. Cobas, C. Hendrickson and F.C. McMicheal. “Using Input-Output Analysis to Estimate Economy-Wide Discharges, “Environmental Science and Technology, 29(9), pp.153-161, September 1995

  3. Did You Know? • Average car used ~70% of its life-cycle energy in the use phase • For an average office building in Finland, ~75% of life-cycle(50yrs) CO2 emissions are accounted for by electricity consumption and heating. But ~80% of life-cycle VOC emissions are due to construction materials production and building maintenance. (source : Seppo Junnila, “Comprehensive LCA Reveals New Critical Aspects in Offices.” Proceedings of Sustainable Building 2002Conference, Oslo, September 2002)

  4. The Grand Vision:Sustainable Development • Definition : Meeting the needs of the current generation without sacrificing the ability of the future generations to meet their needs. (Brundtland Commission,1987) • Myriad alternative processes, materials, designs – Need to examine the environmental and sustainability implications of each • Need economy-wide, life-cycle perspective • Goals: >> better environmental quality >> maintain choices for next generations

  5. Objective : Reduce Fragility • Fragility : conditional probability of attaining or exceeding a specified damage state, given measure(s) of demand also: conditional probability of failure f(r,s,θ) r-capacity variables s-demand variables θ-model parameters

  6. Life-Cycle Assessment(LCA) • A concept and methodology to evaluate the environmental effects of a product or activity holistically, by analyzing the whole life cycle of a particular product, process, or activity(U.S.EPA,1993) • LCA studies analyze the environmental aspects and potential impacts throughout a product’s life cycle (e.g., cradle-to-grave) from raw material acquisition through production, use and disposal (ISO).

  7. Stages of Product Life Cycle

  8. Models of LCA • Process-based LCA, developed by the Society for Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC), the U.S.EPA and the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) • Economic input-output analysis-based LCA(EIO-LCA), developed by Carnegie Mellon University’s Green Design Initiative

  9. Structure of a Process-based LCA Model

  10. Methodology for Life-cycle Assessment(LCA)Following the guidelines of ISO 14040 • Direct applications: • Product development • Product improvement • Strategic planning • Public policy making • Marketing • Other

  11. Criteria of LCA • Criteria >> Spatial >> Temporal >> Design >> Functional unit >> Significance/magnitude >> Uncertainty analysis

  12. Environmental AssessmentInputs(Resources) • Raw materials - E.g.,minerals, ores(iron, copper, bauxite, zinc, lead, gold, silver, etc.), chemicals, fertilizers • Energy - E.g., electricity, petroleum(motor gasoline, kerosene, jet fuel, aviation fuel, bunker fuel, LFO, HFO), natural gas, coal(bituminous, anthracite), nuclear fuel

  13. Environmental AssessmentOutputs(Emissions and Wastes) • Solid, liquid, gaseous • Toxic emissions >>e.g., heavy metals, phenol, toluene >>Carcinogens >>Non-carcinogens • Greenhouse gas emissions(CO2,N2O,CH4,CFC-11,CFC-12) • Ozone depleting substance emissions(CFC-11,CFC-12,CFC-113,trichloroethylene, methyl chloroform, halons, etc.) • Hazardous wastes >>e.g., asbestos, mercury switches, lead-acid batteries • Non-hazardous wastes >>e.g., municipal solid waste

  14. Data Sources in LCA • Proprietary : company data • Academia, consultants, labs • Public: - U.S.:EPA data, e.g., Toxics Release inventory (TRI), RCRA hazardous waste database • Data sources and accuracy are often the biggest problems

  15. LCA as it Should Be Practiced • Assess the entire life-cycle of a product to establish materials intensity/environmental effect. >> include the life-cycle stages + the infrastructure to service the product. • Extend the boundary of the assessment to direct, as well as indirect resource inputs and environmental outputs. >> indirect effects include circularity effects;e.g.,need steel to produce steel.

  16. Circularity Effects Need to Be Included • Circularity effects in the economy must be accounted for : rebars are made from steel, steel is made with iron ore, coal, steel machinery, etc, Iron ore and coal are mined using steel machinery, energy, etc.. RESOURCES waste product emission System boundary

  17. The Boundary Issue • Where to set the boundary of the LCA? • “Conventional” LCA : include all processes, but at least the most important processes if there are time and financial constraints • In EIO-LCA, the boundary is by definition the entire economy, recognizing interrelationships among industrial sectors (www.eiolca.net)

  18. Economic Input-Output Analysis • Developed by Wassily Leonief (Nobel Prize in 1973) • “General interdependency” model : quantifies the interrelationships among sectors of an economic system • Identifies the direct and indirect economic inputs • Can be extended to environmental and energy analysis

  19. Economic Input-Output Model ∑Xij + Fi = Xi; Xi = Xj; using Dij=Xij/Xj ∑(Dij*Xj) + Fi = Xi In vector / matrix notation: D*X + F = X => F = [I - D]*X or X = [I – D]-1 *F

  20. I-O Visualization • Production Recipe-$20,000 automobile

  21. EIO-LCA Implementtation • www.eiolca.net • Use the 480x480 input-output matrix of the U.S. economy from 1997 • Augment with sector-level environmental impact coefficient matrixes(R)[effect/$output from sector] • Environmental impact calculation: E = R[I-D]-1F

  22. EIO-LCA Data • Economic purchases[$] • External cost[$] • Electricity[M kWh] • Energy[TJ] • Different coals and oil-based fuels[t] • Conventional pollutants[t] • OSHA safety[fatalities] • GHS[t CO2 equiv.] • Ores[t] • Fertilizers[$] • Hazardous waste generated, shipped, managed[t] • Toxic releases, transfers, treatment[t] • Toxicity-weighted emissions-CMU-ET[t] • Water used[gal]

  23. Software for LCA • Conventional LCA >>GaBi(PE Europe, Germany, http://www.gabisoftware.com) >>Team(Ecobilan, France) >>SimaPro(Pre Consultants, Netherlands) >>Umberto, Boustead, KLC, etc • EIO-LCA(www.eiolca.net)

  24. Reinforced Concrete Product Life-cycle: A Simplified Model Recycling Recycling Transportation involved -----------------

  25. Simplified Process Model Input Requirements for a $2Reinforced Concrete Product($1 concrete and $1 steel) Rows represent inputs into the sectors named at column heads.

  26. Total Requirements Table from EIO-LCA for Inputs of a Reinforced Concrete Product Rows represent inputs into the sectors named at column heads.

  27. Inputs for a $2 Reinforced Concrete Product • Steel $1.17 • Concrete $1.01 • Cement $0.20 • Electricity $0.15 • Trucking service $0.13 • Sand and gravel $0.12 • Chemicals $0.18 • Coal mining $0.17 • Iron ore mining $0.04 • Lime $0.005 • Wholesale $0.10 • Banking $0.02 • Advertising $0.02

  28. Inputs for a $2 Reinforced Concrete Product • Maintenance $0.02 • Computer service $0.01 • Eating places $0.008 • Air transportation $0.008 • Hotels $0.007 • Construction machines $0.004 • Paper $0.004 • Aluminum $0.003 • Plastics $0.003 • Postal services $0.003 • Fertilizers $0.001 • Meat $0.0033

  29. RCRA Hazardous Waste Generators for $150,000 of Reinforced Concrete Using the Simplified Process Model Number may not add up due to rounding.

  30. Top 10 RCRA Hazardous Waste Generators for a $150,000 of Reinforced Concrete Using EIO-LCA Number may not add up due to rounding. *Not included in the simplified process model

  31. Life-Cycle Impact Assessment • Classification • Characterization • Evaluation

  32. Life-Cycle Impact Assessment(LCIA) ISO14042 Global Criteria • resource depletion • Global warming potential-GWP(CO2 equivalents) • Ozone depletion potential-ODP(CFC-11 equivalents) Regional Criteria • Acidification potential(SO2 equivalents) • Land use Local Criteria • Human and eco-toxicity (Threshold Limit Value/Permissible Limit. Reference Dose, Lethal Dose-50, Lethal Concentration-50, Human Toxicity Potential, etc) • Eutrophication (excessive growth of plants in a water body due to nitrogen and phosphorus discharges) Other Criteria • Nuisance (noise, odor, landfill demand, radiation, etc.)

  33. GWP Time Horizon Dependent(CO2 equivalent)

  34. Ozone Depletion Potential of Selected Chemicals

  35. Summary • LCA emerges as a valuable environmental analysis and decision support tool • Internationally accepted and demanded(ISO14040 series) • Need to compare >>equivalent designs where functionally delivers equal benefits >>life-cycle costs, not just first costs >>service life/longevity/durability (the role of obsolescence and technological change)

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