Life cycle assessment defined

Life cycle assessment is defined by ISO 14040 as compilation and evalu ation of inputs, outputs and the potential environmental impacts of a product system throughout its life cycle. The ISO standards regulate the procedural aspects of LCA. They do not, however, provide all the information required for carrying out an LCA study. The main phases of LCA are goal and scope definition, inventory, impact assessment, and interpretation. The various applications of LCA are not regulated by the standard (Fig. 15.1). 

Life cycle assessment (LCA) An analysis defined by ISO 14040 as compilation and evaluation of inputs and outputs and the potential environmental impacts of a production system throughout its life cycle. ... 

Advisory Group are considering different facets of LCA. In 1993, they developed the Code of Practice ,the first worldwide accepted technical framework for LCA. This was an important step towards the harmonisation of the method and has initiated and supported the standardisation process by ISO. Between 1997 and 2000, ISO produced the international series of standard defining the different stages of the LCA methodology (ISO 14040 1997, ISO 14041 1998, ISO 14042 2000 ° as well as ISO 14043 2000° ). As mentioned above, these standards were replaced by two improved editions of life cycle assessment standards in 2006 (ISO 14040 2006 and ISO 14044 2006°). 

More companies are incorporating life-cycle costs and life-cycle assessment into their operations. The U.S. Air Force has developed a computer-aided software-engineering tool, for defining the complex sets of interacting activities in the life cycle of an aircraft. 

To define the value of biodegradable polymers, the overall system costs and the environmental impact of individual products in their respective target applications have to be considered. To this end, comprehensive life-cycle assessments (EGAs) are an appropriate tool, especially when accompanied by costs evaluations that cover all phases from cradle to grave. 

In the previous chapters, thermodynamic analysis is used to improve processes. However, as pointed out in Chapter 9 (Energy Conversion), the exergy analysis did not make any distinction between the combustion of coal and natural gas and, as a result, could not make any statements regarding toxicity or environmental impact of exploration, production and use of the two fuels. A technique that can do this is LCA. What exactly is life cycle analysis In ISO 14040 [1], life cycle analysis (or life cycle assessment) is defined as "the compilation and evaluation of the inputs, outputs and potential environmental impacts of a product throughout its life cycle."... 

Life-cycle assessment (LCA) is an additional assessment approach for making environmental decisions. LCA can be defined as an inventory of all the steps in the development, manufacture, use, and disposal of a product or a commodity with a determination of the environmental consequences (Todd and Curan 1999). The purpose of an LCA is to provide information to a decision maker so that choices can be made in the design of a manufacturing process to minimize environmental impacts or risks. 

Define Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). What is its purpose ... 

Consumers may learn about environmental impacts from eco-labels, self-declaration, and life cycle assessment studies. Industrial engineers may learn about clean manufacturing as universities integrate industrial ecology concepts into business and engineering programs (Santi 1997 Stuart 2000). Important clean manufacturing concepts are defined in the next section. 

Life-Cycle Interpretation is the phase of life-cycle assessment in which the findings of either the inventory analysis or the impact assessment, or both, are combined in consistence with the defined goal and scope in order to reach conclusions and recommendations. 

An environmental impact is an impact that an activity has on the environment through the emissions or use of resources that it causes. In the context of life cycle assessment (LCA), an environmental impact has been defined in EC-IRC (2011) as ... 

Life cycle assessment (LCA) is the preeminent method for the estimation of the complete carbon and water footprints associated with products, including energy resources. LCA is a system-level approach that accounts for all such activities from cradle to grave , with well-defined guidelines specified by ISO [1]. In addition to permitting environmental comparisons of alternative energy sources, LCA facilitates the elucidation of the relative environmental impacts of particular operations over the life cycle of the product under investigation. 

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. 

Life cycle assessment (LCA) is defined in Horne [4] as the compilation and evaluation of inputs and outputs and the potential impacts of a product system throughout its life cycle. In E-LCA, all input materials, waste, and emissions are accounted for at all stages raw material extraction and processing product and/or service manufacturing use and disposal and finally transportation. The comprehensive data requirement of LCA makes it a particularly effective mechanism for systematic assessment of environmental impacts when designing chemical engineerir processes to produce chemicals, fuels, and other product systems [4]. 

LCSA extends the environmental boundaries of traditional LCA in an attempt to incorporate the concept of sustainable development. It is defined as a method of addressing environmental, economic, and social sustainabiHty of a product system over its life cycle, indicated through the measurement of either positive or negative impacts [3]. LCA has been implemented through an integration of E-LCA, hfe cycle costing (LCC), and social life cycle assessment (S-LCA) [3]. Brief definitions of E-LCA, LCC, and S-LCA are described in Table 14.1. 

To determine the environmental impacts of a product or a process, a life cycle assessment is often conducted. Life cycle assessment provides a comprehensive and quantitative analysis of the environmental impacts of a product or process throughout its entire life cycle. LCA is a powerful and widely used tool for measuring the sustainability of an enterprise or a concept and informing decisions with respect to sustainability and environmental considerations. Guidelines for conducting an LCA are defined by the ISO 14040 series [ 1 ]. There are four main stages to an LCA ... 

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) started in the 1960s, with theearliest documented example attributed to Coca-Cola comparing the impact of a glass bottle and a can. LCA is technically defined as an investigation and valuation of the environmental impact of a product or service that is caused or necessitated by... 

Life Cycle Assessment is a methodology to assess the environmental impacts of a product, process or service. The International Organization for Standardization s (ISO) defines Life Cycle Assessment as A systematic set of procedures for compiling and examining the inputs and outputs of materials and energy and the associated environmental impacts directly attributable to the functioning of a product or service throughout its life cycle . 

Q.l.l Sustainability is only defined for environmental effects T or F Q.1.2 Life cycle assessment can be used to measure sustainability T or F Q.1.3 Sustainable products are produced with lower carbon footprint only TorF ... 

As defined in Chapter 1, sustainable plastic products can be created with lower carbon footprint, lower waste, and lower pollution than conventional plastic products. Plastic products can be used for sustainable plastic packaging, bottles, and bags. Life cycle assessments (LCAs) can be used to compare the different options for plastic packaging, bottles, and bags. Those three plastic products account for approximately 40% of all of the plastic products sold, but approximately 10% of the plastic products in a typical landfill and approximately 30% of the plastic waste in the oceans. 

This book will define sustainability and sustainable materials and provide practical examples of sustainable plastics and provide examples of life cycle assessments (LCA) for these materials. This book can be used for education and training for plastics professionals and students who are interested in creating sustainable products. 

Sustainable plastics can include biobased, biodegradable, and recycled plastics. LCAs will be used to provide a scientific explanation of sustainable plastics. The content of the book includes definitions of sustainability and sustainable materials, evaluations of the environmental concerns for industry, definitions of life cycle assessments, explanations of biobased and recycled plastics, and examples of sustainable plastics as defined by LCAs. 

This book chapter discusses results from Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) studies for the commercially most important biopolymers. Biopolymers are defined here as polymers that are fully or partially produced from renewable raw materials, covering both biodegradable and non-degradable polymers. 

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