Land life cycle analysis

W. E. Bishop, C. C. Kuta, and C. A. Pittinger, Life Cycle Analysis and Its Relevance to the Detergent Industry, paper presented Sept. 14, 1992, New Horizons 92 CSMA/AOCS Detergent Industry Conference, Bolton Landing, New York. 

Inventory analysis involves data collection and calculation procedures to quantify relevant inputs and outputs of a product system. These inputs and outputs may include the use of resources and releases to air, water, and land associated with the system. These data also constitute the input to the life-cycle impact assessment. 

Meaningful data of technical products and the life cycles behind them can only be obtained if the appropriate technical understanding and expert knowledge of the data collectors is ensured. Studies often lack especially in this regard. The main purpose of an inventory analysis in the context of data collection consists of the identification and quantification of the relevant input and output flows over the whole life cycle of a product. With these, one must also count, among others, the use of resources and the use of land, raw materials, fabricated products. 

Domburg, V., Lewandowski, I., Patel, M., 2004. An analysis and system extension of life cycle assessment studies. Comparing the land requirements, energy savings, and greenhouse gas emissions reduction of biobased polymers and bioenergy. Journal of Industrial Ecology 7 (3-4), 93-116. 

Cote et al. [11] undertook a detailed economic analysis in order to compare the life cycle costs of the MBR to both the CAS process and the CAS with tertiary filtration (CAS-TF). A range of plant sizes were considered, treating between 3,800 and 76,000 m day of sewage. The MBR consisted of a Zenon system with an average flux of 20 L m" day. Capital costs included the land costs in addition to the process. For the MBR, capital costs were lower than the CAS options on... 

Figures 8.2 and 8.3 are simple representations of a single sustainability impact or dimension, in this case, energy use and water use. But there are a multitude of different impacts categories, such as green gas emissions, toxicological loading, eutrophication, land use, and more that need to be considered to fully evaluate the sustainability of a retailer. Hot spot analysis can be used to assess impacts for a large number of sustainability categories for individual products and for the whole of the retailer s portfolio of operations. However, whether the analysis is done at a product level or organizational level, a deep understanding of the life cycle is required.

The life cycle inventory analysis involves data collection and calculation procedures to quantify the total system s inputs and outputs that are relevant from an environmental point of view, i.e., mainly resource use, atmospheric emissions, aqueous emissions, solid waste and land use. 

The life cycle inventory analysis (ii) involves data collection and calculation procedures to quantify the total system s inputs and outputs that are relevant from an environmental point of view, that is, mainly resource use, atmospheric emissions, aqueous emissions, solid waste, and land use. The LCIA (iii) aims at evaluating the significance of potential environmental impacts using the results of the life cycle inventory analysis. The life cycle interpretation (iv) is the final step of the LCA where conclusions are drawn from both the life cycle inventory analysis and the LCIA or, in the case of life cycle inventory studies, from the inventory analysis only. The important LCA requirements are given in Figure 15.5 [150]. 

These indicators are a shortlist of the sustainability issues related to biofuels production and not all of them can be estimated with current life-cycle assessment (LCA) methodologies. For instance, none of the LCA studies discussed in the Uterature included ILUC (indirect land-use change that may displace existing agricultural activity) in the analysis (Humalisto, 2015). This specific problem remains a major unsolved factor for the assessment of the carbon footprint of biofuels as it is tightly Unked to deforestation, which endangers the local habitats and biodiversity. 

---