Inventory cycle

The life cycle is first defined and the complete resource requirements (materials and energy) quantified. This allows the total environmental emissions associated with the life cycle to be quantified by putting together the individual parts. This defines the life-cycle inventory. 

Once the life-cycle inventory has been quantified, we can attempt to characterize and assess the eflfects of the environmental emissions in a life-cycle impact analysis. While the life-cycle inventory can, in principle at least, be readily assessed, the resulting impact is far from straightforward to assess. Environmental impacts are usually not directly comparable. For example, how do we compare the production of a kilogram of heavy metal sludge waste with the production of a ton of contaminated aqueous waste A comparision of two life cycles is required to pick the preferred life cycle. 

Having attempted to quantify the life-cycle inventory and impact, a life-cycle improvement analysis suggests environmental improvements. 

FIGURE 15.3 Example of a product system, production and use of steel sheet metal, for fife cycle inventory analysis. 

Jensen WB (1997) A note on the term Chalcogen . J Chem Educ 74 1063-1064 Fischer W (2001) A second note on the term Chalcogen . J Chem Educ 78 1333 Fthenakis V, Wang W, Kim HC (2009) Life cycle inventory analysis of the production of metals used in photovoltaics. Renewable Sustainable Energy Rev 13 493-517 Waitkins GR, Bearse AE, Shutt R (1942) Industrial utilization of selenium and tellurium. Ind Eng Chem 34 899-910... 

Blowers, P. Titus, M. (2004) Use of Life-Cycle Inventory as a Screening Tool for Environmental Performance Supercritical Carbon Dioxide in the Semiconductor Industry. Environmental Progress, 23, 284-290. 

The production of the agrochemical 6 (Scheme 5.7) is carried out batchwise via a three-step protocol. Mass balancing has been conducted for three stages of development Laboratory-, pilot- and operation scale. An LCA was available for the operation stage only. A description of this LCA including data sources and data acquisition methods was published by Geisler et al. (product A in reference [9] corresponds to product 6 here). Many parameters in the Life-Cycle Inventory (LCI) are estimated, especially utihty demands and yields of processes for the production of precursors. Uncertainty in these estimations was illustrated in a... 

Capello, C., Hellweg, S., Badertscher, B., Hungerbuhler, K. (2005) Life-Cycle Inventory of Waste Solvent Distillation Statistical Analysis of Empirical Data. Environmental Science and Technology, 39, 5885-5892. 

Jimenez-Gonzalez, C., Kim, S., Overcash, M.R. (2000) Methodology for Developing Gate-to-Gate Life Cycle Inventory Information. International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment, 5(3), 153-159. 

Life Cycle Inventory (LCI). During LCI, mass and energy balances are performed to quantify the material and energy inputs into the system as well as wastes and emissions from the system. 

Life Cycle Interpretation. The results obtained within the Life Cycle Inventory and/or the Life Cycle Impact Assessment are interpreted in the light of the Goal and Scope Definition (e.g., by means of sensitivity or uncertainty analyses) in order to draw conclusions and make recommendations. ... 

Life cycle inventory of the alternative technological systems... 

Ecoinvent database by Frischknecht et al. (2006) v.1.3. Swiss Centre for Life Cycle Inventories, Switzerland. 

ISO 14041 1998 (1998) Environmental Management - Life Cycle Assessment - Goal and Scope Definition and Life Cycle Inventory Analysis. European Commitee for Standardisation, Brussels, Belgium. 

Franklin Associates (2010). Final Report. Life cycle inventory of 100% postconsumer HOPE and PET recycled resin from postconsumer containers and packaging. 

Kim, S. and Dale, B. (2005). Life cycle inventory information of the United States electricity system. Int. ]. LCA 10, 294-304. 

Sheehan, J., Camobreco, V., Duffield, J., Graboski, M., and Shapouri, H. (1998). Life cycle inventory of biodiesel and petroleum diesel for use in an urban bus. Final Report. National Renewable Energy Laboratory, US Department of Energy. 

Similarly, Overcash et al. [32] produced an engineering rule-of-practice-based analysis of separate unit processes used in manufacturing. The information is collated in the form of a unit process life cycle inventory, which then helps to evaluate the manufactured products through the quantification of various parameters, including input materials, energy requirements, material losses and machine variables. 

Overcash, M., Twomey, J., and Kalla, D., 2009. Unit process life cycle inventory for product manufacturing operations, ASME International Manufacturing Science and Engineering Conference, West Lafayette, IN, USA. 

Nemecek T, Erzinger S. Modelling Representative Life Cycle Inventories for Swiss Arable Crops. International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment, 2005 10(l) 68-76. DOI 10.1065/lca2004.09.181.8... 

Abstract Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a useful tool to assess impacts of cradle-to-grave chains of products/services. In the Riskcycle framework, the focus is on additives. Additives are usually minor constituents of products, but depending on their specific properties they can be important in the total scope of impacts of such products. In the LCA literature, additives are hardly visible. Most case studies of products containing additives do not mention them. The reasons for this are unclear, but are at least partly due to the fact that information on additives is not included in standard LCA databases. This is true for both life cycle inventory (LCI) and life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) databases. Therefore, it is difficult to conclude whether or not additives indeed are important contributors to environmental impacts over the life cycle. 

Life cycle inventory (LCI) data on additives may be incomplete. 

Doka G (2007) Life cycle inventories of waste treatment services. Part I, II and III. Ecoinvent report no. 13. Ecoinvent, St-Gallen, Switzerland, http //www.ecoinvent.ch/... 

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