Life cycle assessment example

ISO ISO/TR 14049 Environmental Management—Life Cycle Assessment—Examples of Application of ISO 14041 to Goal and Scope Definition and Inventory Analysis ISO/TR 14049 International Organization for Standardization Geneva, March 15, 2000, 2000. 

ISO/TR 14049 2000 Life cycle assessment - Examples of application of ISO 14041 to goal and scope definition and inventory analysis... 

Fig. 17 Life Cycle Model in a professional software system for Life Cycle Assessment example of production of MDI...

ISO/TR 14047, 2003. Technical Report Environmental Management — Life Cycle Assessment — Examples of Application of ISO 14042. 

Adhesives and resins are one of the most important raw materials in wood-based panels. Thus, each question concerning the life cycle assessment and the recycling of bonded wood panels does bring into question the adhesive resins used. This includes, for example, the impact of the resin on various environmental aspects such as waste water and effluents, emission of noxious volatile chemicals during production and from the finished boards, or the reuse for energy generation of wood panels. The type of resin has also a crucial influence on feasibility and efficiency for several material recycling processes. 

LCC calculations frequently provide energy-efficient solutions. This gives reduced energy consumption and a reduction in environmental pollution. For example, the installation of a heat recovery system in a ventilation system may reduce the energy consumption and emissions by 50 to 80%. Figure 16.1 compares life cycle cost and life cycle assessment calculations. 

On the other hand, in part II of this volume, a set of case studies are introduced. The application of the selected methodologies inside each one of the foresaid disciplines (e.g., risk assessment, life cycle assessment) to specific cases and countries is presented here. The results of such application are discussed as well as their reliability. Toxicological studies in Italy, risk assessment of electronic waste in China, or disposal of bearing lamps in India are some examples of selected scenarios. 

For a full life cycle assessment, the basic principle is that each material and energy input into the system should be traced back to natural resources obtained from the environment, or to releases into the environment. These are termed elementary flows , and they represent inputs into or outputs from the system being analysed. In an analysis of this type, it may be relatively straightforward to assign a material value to a flow of (for example) water effluent into the environment, but what may be less certain is the environmental impact of such a flow in a quantitative sense. 

Depending on the aim of the study, appropriate life-cycle methods and scope have to be chosen [27]. Most of the methods either consider all stages of the ENM or nanoproduct life-cycle, or focus only on specific parts of the life-cycle. For example, some methods focus only on the environmental health effects of ENMs, whereas life-cycle assessment (LCA) focuses on all environmental impacts of a nanoproduct, and thus also includes considerations such as impacts of energy consumption. LCA is essentially a comprehensive tool for environmental sustainability assessment. 

Biotech may be gaining importance in the food and nutrition sector, but many nutritional ingredients are still produced by chemical synthesis or via extraction for example, carotenoids are currently most competitively produced by chemical means. For vitamin B2, however, the situation has changed completely in the last five years. The traditional eight-step chemical synthesis has been replaced by one fermentation process. This biotech process, which is also practiced by BASF on a large scale, reduces overall cost by up to 40 percent and the overall environmental impact by 40 percent, as has been shown by detailed life cycle assessments. Similar trends have been described for other bio-based processes, indicating that economic and environmental benefits go hand in hand in today s white biotech practice (EuropaBio and McKinsey Company, 2003, DSM position document, 2004). 

Products and processes all have a natural life cycle. For example, the life cycle of a product starts from the extraction of raw materials for its production and ends when the product is finally disposed. In the production, use and disposal of this product, energy is consumed and wastes and emissions are generated. A life-cycle assessment is an analysis in which the use of energy and materials are quantified and the potential environmental and societal impacts are predicted. Life-cycle thinking is progressively being adopted by industry as an... 

Typical life-cycle assessments are conducted during the product review stage of a process, after the plant, prototypes, and detailed designs of the product have been performed. However, Mueller et al.111 state that life-cycle evaluation should be conducted starting at the planning stage of product development. They illustrate this using an example of multifunctional chip cards that are used in a wide variety of electronics. They determine the amount of material used... 

The pulp and paper industry is another industry where life-cycle assessment methodology has been applied. One example is a paper by Lopes et al.,130 who compared the two major fuels used in the pulp and paper industry fuel oil and natural gas. The environmental categories were the same categories listed by Allen and Shonnard.53 The use of methane in place of fuel oil decreases all of the environmental parameters except photochemical ozone formation, which does not vary between fuel options. 

The problem is the boundary limit of the techno-economical assessment, for example, which costs are effectively considered (see also later discussion regarding life-cycle assessment). This is a moving boundary that should be determined from the best-available-technology (BAT) and the related legislative limits on emissions. However, a more advanced concept is to consider the chemical process as a component of the environment and set the local legislative limits on emissions to values that do not decrease the biodiversity in the specific area where the process is localized. There are many problems in implementing this concept which introduces the idea that emissions from chemical production (and in general from all industrial and human activities) should have a value connected to the capacity of the environment to sustain the life (biodiversity). 

Eco-efficiency assessment focuses in principle on the entire life cycle, but then concentrates on specific events in a life cycle where the alternatives under consideration differ. Eco-efficiency analysis includes the cost data as well as the straight life cycle data. Eigure 5.3 shows that life cycle assessment is based on the environmental profile, which can be obtained, for example, from data provided by the plants and which includes the path from the cradle to the work-gate. On extending this approach to the entire life cycle, a life cycle assessment is obtained. Adding to these additional assessment criteria again, followed by an economic assessment, then leads to an eco-efficiency analysis (Figure 5.4). 

The inventory data and the classified and characterized results are the ecological profile of the product or product system under study. These profiles may be used as modules for the life cycle assessment of subsequent products, for which these products are input of goods (e.g. LCl data of a steel production analysis are the basis for an LCA of a car made of tailored blanks such as building material profiles, for example, may be used to analyze buildings). A prerequisite for this is however that the methods and background data used for the modeling of the systems are identical. 

Process design the report includes sections that discuss the use of techniques such as risk and life-cycle assessments to provide a holistic view of a product s environmental impact. Examples of environmentally adapted products include solvent-free lacquers, biologically degradable lubricants and catalysts for VOC and NOx reduction. 

Process design product stewardship is discussed in the CER, particularly in respect to life-cycle assessments for titanium tetrachloride and converting wastes to co-products for use in the food industry. There are also a number of examples that indicated that Tioxide improved processes to reduce environmental impact. These include ... 

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

Examples of commercial applications are scarce up to now (cf Section 5.3 use of ILs has been considered for a series of specific questions). The scaling-up of IL syntliesis procedures is normally without problems however, the commercialization and/or transport of the ionic liquids raise the question of their registration (EINECS for Europe or equivalents see Section 5.4). Disposal and recycle of ILs are important concerns and have to be considered on a case-by-case basis. And Ionic liquids are not always green - as has been stated by Rogers et al. [42], From the standpoint of life cycle assessment and hazard analysis ILs are clearly not recommendable for industrial use, especially if those with PFg or BF4 as anions are concerned. And it is obviously no wonder that recent new developments such as BMIM octylsulfate have been emphasized as even greener ionic liquids [43],... 

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