Life Cycle Assessment

1. Life Cycle Assessment

2. What is a Product Life Cycle? Product Life Cycle Product disposal Raw materials mining Primary materials production Component manufacture Product assembly &distribution Product use & maintenance Service Supply Chain The boxes are process groups called life cycle stages (system components). The arrows are economic material flows (relationships between system components)

3. Use and maintenance waste and emissions Materials Energy Materials Energy Materials Energy Materials Energy Materials Energy Materials Energy Transport and distribution waste and emissions End-of-life waste and emissions Production waste and emissions Life cycle thinking as a systems approach Definition of system: An organized assembly of components that are united and regulated by interaction or interdependence to accomplish a set of specific functions. The system itself is separated from its environment by the system boundaries. Most systems are open, i.e. they interact with their environment. Raw materials mining Primary materials production Component manufacture Final product assembly Product use and maintenance Product disposal Service

4. Life cycle assessment terminology (ISO 14040:2006) Elementary flows (e.g. resource extractions) – input flows Functional unit Economy-environment system boundary economic process economic process economic process economic process Intermediate flow Intermediate flow Intermediate flow Product system Elementary flows (e.g. emissions to air) – output flows

5. History and definition of Life Cycle Assessment • Late 1960s, first Resource and Environmental Profile Analyses (REPAs) (e.g. in 1969 Coca Cola funds study on beverage containers) • Early 1970s, first LCAs (Sundström,1973,Sweden, Boustead,1972, UK, Basler & Hofmann,1974,Switzerland, Hunt et al.,1974 USA) • 1980s, numerous studies without common methodology with contradicting results • 1993, SETAC publishes Guidelines for Life-Cycle Assessment: A ‘Code of Practice’, (Consoli et al.) • 1997-2000, ISO publishes Standards 14040-43, defining the different LCA stages • 1998-2001, ISO publishes Standards and Technical Reports 14047-49 • 2000, UNEP and SETAC create Life Cycle Initiative • 2006 ISO publishes Standards 14040 & 14044, which update and replace 14040-43 Definition of LCA according to ISO 14040: LCA is a technique […] compiling an inventoryof relevant inputs and outputs of a product system;evaluating the potential environmental impactsassociated with those inputs and outputs;and interpreting the results of the inventory and impact phases in relation to the objectives of the study.

6. Life Cycle Assessment Framework Four different phases of LCA are distinguished: Goal and scopedefinition Interpretation • Direct application: • product development and improvement • Strategic planning • Public policy making • Marketing • Other Inventoryanalysis Impactassessment Source: ISO 14040

7. Goal and scopedefinition Interpretation Inventoryanalysis Impactassessment

8. Goal and Scope Definition • The Goal of the LCA states and justifies • the aim or objective of the study • the intended use of the results (application) • the initiator (and commissioner) of the study • the practitioner of the study • the stakeholders of the study (interested parties) • intended users of the study (target audience) • mention if one objective is ‘comparative assertion disclosed to the public’ • The Scope of an LCA study defines • temporal coverage (specific or averaged data) • spatial coverage (specific or averaged data) • technology coverage (specific or averaged data) • coverage of economic processes (initial system boundaries) • coverage of environmental interventions and impacts • mode of analysis (Attributional versus Consequential LCA) • level of sophistication

9. Goal and Scope DefinitionFunctional unit and reference flows • Definitions: • The functional unit describes the primary function(s) fulfilled by a (product) system, and indicates how much of this function is to be considered in the intended LCA study. It willbe used as a basis for selecting one or more alternative (product) systems that can provide these function(s). The functional unit enables different systems to be treated as functionally equivalent and allows reference flows to be determined for each of them. • Having defined the functional unit, the amount of product which is necessary to fulfill thefunction shall be quantified. The result of this quantification is the reference flow. • Issues: • Multi-functionality - Beverage bottles have a packaging and an image function • - Hand drying systems have a drying and a hygienic function • Equivalency of product alternatives is often determined by customer acceptance and may be a function of price and/or perceived rather than real product differences

10. Goal and Scope DefinitionFunctional unit and reference flows Recommended procedure: 1. Identify all relevant functions of the product system studied 2. Select one ore more functions as the relevant functions for the study If more than one function is relevant: - account for primary function only or - account for primary and (all) additional functions or - allocate between primary and additional function (using appropriate mechanism) 3. Specify selected function(s) in (SI or SI-derived) units 4. Determine an appropriate quantity 5. Determine and identify the alternative systems studied in terms of reference flows What are functional units for the comparison of Various paints? Paper versus plastic bags in supermarkets? What are the resulting reference flows? 20m2 of wall covering with a coloured surface of 98% opacity and a lifetime of 5 years Comfortable carrying of X kg and Y m3 of groceries (what about durability?)

11. Goal and scopedefinition Interpretation Inventoryanalysis Impactassessment

12. Inventory analysis In the inventory analysis the elementary flows associated with the life cycle of the product system that generates the reference flow are quantified. These are the material and energy inputs and waste and emission outputs of all economic processes that are within the system boundaries. Functional unit Reference flow Initial flow diagram Detailed flow diagrams Unit processes Inventory table for each unit processes Aggregate inventory table for reference flow

13. wood chips Wood yard trees logs pulp paper cup Landfill, recycling Harvesting Digester, washing, bleaching Forming Cup use adhesive, heat steam, chlorine (?) gas, naphta styrene oil gas Refinery Styrene production oil, gas PS cup Landfill, recycling Drilling Poly- merization, blowing Cup use catalyst catalyst solvent, blowing agent Inventory AnalysisInitial flow diagram Definition: The flow diagram provides an outline of all the unit processes to be modeled, including their interrelationships, which are intermediate product flows. Starting with an initial diagram at the level of aggregated processes for each life cycle stage:

14. catalytic reforming naphta benzene ethylbenzene production ethylbenzene pygas natural gas cracking styrene production ethylene styrene Inventory AnalysisDetailed flow diagram The initial diagram is followed by detailed diagrams, at the level of unit processes(processes of the system for which individual data are collected). Styrene production naphta gas styrene

15. Inventory Analysis Description of unit processes Process data Flow data Unit process Intermediate output flows Intermediate input flows Elementary input flows Elementary output flows Collector data Source and collection data

16. Inventory Analysis Description of unit processes Process data • Includes information like • Function of the process (typically given as its economic outputs) • Name of the process • Technical description of the process and all sub-processes • Geographical coverage • Time-period covered • Technology coverage • Representativeness

17. Inventory Analysis Description of unit processes Collector data • Includes information like • Person or organization that collected the data • Contact information Source and collection data • Includes information like • Data collections methods (sampling & measurements techniques) • Description of models used • Bibliographic information for secondary data sources • Cut-off criteria and screenings • Allocation method (if any)

18. Inventory Analysis Description of unit processes Flow data INPUTS OUTPUTS Goods Services Materials Energy Waste (for treatment) Goods Services Materials Energy Waste (for treatment) Unit Process Intermediate flows Intermediate flows Chemicals to air Chemicals to water Chemicals to soil Radionuclides Sound Waste heat Casualties Etc. Biotic resources Abiotic resources Land occupation Land transformation Etc. Elementary flows Elementary flows

19. Inventory Analysis Inventory table Inputs: Outputs: Example

20. Inventory Analysis • Even though the methodology of inventory analysis seems relatively • straightforward, it is – in fact – complicated by two important issues: • Defining boundaries for the system under analysis: Which processes to include and which to exclude • Allocation of elementary flows if process has more than one economic output: materials energy wastes emissions unit process product A product B

21. Internet resources for LCA:http://www.lcacenter.org/ (American Center for LCA)http://www.epa.gov/nrmrl/lcaccess/index.html (EPA website on LCA)http://www.nrel.gov/lci/ (US LCI Database)http://www.uneptie.org/pc/sustain/lcinitiative/ (UNEP/SETAC life cycle initiative)http://lca.jrc.ec.europa.eu/lcainfohub/index.vm (EU website on LCA & LCI database)http://www.ecoinvent.ch (Swiss centre for LCI data)http://www.netzwerk-lebenszyklusdaten.de (German LCA network) Reading for Monday, 28 January: Ekvall & Finnveden (2001) Allocation in ISO 14041 – a critical review, Journal of Cleaner Production 9(2001): 197-208 Hendrickson et al. (1998) Economic Input-Output Models for EnvironmentalLife-Cycle Assessment, Environmental Sci. & Tech. 32: 184A-191A. Reading available on course website:http://www.bren.ucsb.edu/academics/course.asp?number=282