Cycle Assessment Metrics

Figure 13.5A Life cycle assessment metrics for 1 kg of ethylene using the thermal allocation method.

The measure for assessing the sustainability of a process design should consider the complete manufacturing supply chain over the predictable plant life cycle. The metrics should be simple, understandable by a larger public, useful for decisionmaking agents, consistent and reproducible. The metrics described below [3] have... 

Safety Considerations, Life Cycle Assessment and Green Metrics... 

Why is Life Cycle Assessment important 13) How can analytical techniques be used to follow the course of a reaction 14) What is the Toxics Release Inventory 15) What are green metrics Are mass and energy good enough indicators of environmental impact 16)... 

Table 2.4 Examples of life cycle inventory (LCI) and life cycle assessment (LCA) metrics.

The authors highlighted the importance of metrics in the subject of green chemistry by pointing out that (a) a set of metrics should be developed to address all 12 green chemistry principles, (b) such a set of metrics should be easy to apply, (c) the metrics should measure progress as well as point chemists in the green direction, (d) the metrics should inform and provide momentum for both chemists and corporate managers, and (e) sustainability metrics are valuable since they focus on life cycle assessment and are thus better able to capture a broad evaluation of sustainability. 

Life cycle assessment Risk and nanotoxicology Green chemistry (sustainability) metrics Consumer protection... 

Mass index (MI) is defined as the total mass used in a process/process step divided by the mass of product and it is approximately the E-factor plus one. A software package, the Environmental Assessment Tool for Organic Syntheses (EATOS), has been designed to calculate some of these metrics. More elaborate assessments such as life cycle assessment (LCA), could be performed, but this is also beyond the scope of this chapter. Our objective is to provide a preliminary assessment for the community to determine if further development of any guanidine organocatalysis is appropriate for use in green chemistry. 

Tabone MD, Cregg JJ, Beckman EJ, Landis AE. Sustainability metrics life cycle assessment and green design in polymers. Environ Sci Technol 2010 44 (21) 8264-8269. 

Figure 15.6 Example output of the process mass intensity and life cycle assessment tool developed by the American Chemical Society Green Chemistry Institute Pharmaceutical Roundtable. The data presented in the columns provide the metrics for steps 1,2, 3, and the total of the synthesis. Some of the instructions in the tool are included as an illustration.

Tabone, M. D., J. J. Cregg, E. J. Beckman, and A. E. Landis. 2010. Sustainability Metrics Life Cycle Assessment and Green Design in Polymers. Environ. Sci. TechnoL, 44(21), 8264-8269. 

The state of communities and ecosystems can be described according to both structural and functional parameters (see Chapter 14 in Walker et al. 2000). Functional analyses include the measurement of nutrient cycling, turnover of organic residues, energy flow, and niche metrics. Structural analyses include the assessment of species present, their population densities, and their genetic composition. 

Figure 2.3 Examples of Life Cycle Inventory and Assessment (LCI and LCIA) metrics.

The link between quality planning and quality improvement is execution. The continuous improvement cycle (Fig. 5) starts with benchmarking and internal assessment to arrive at a gap analysis. From the gap analysis an action plan with assigned leadership, resources, timelines, and metrics is developed. From this quality plan, the plant s human resources must successfully execute the plan for improvement to occur. It is the leadership s responsibility to assure that the plan is do-able, appropriate and adequate resources are assigned, and that the culture of the plant supports change. This starts with the project leaders who must have not only the technical skills, but also the project... 

The check stage of the cycle involves monitoring and internal and external assessment of performance. Organizations can use this step to establish metrics that address social and economic issues, in addition to the environmental measures that they already use. 

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