Life-Cycle Assessment Its Application to Solvents

LCA is a snapshot in time of inputs and outputs. It can be used as an objective technical tool to identify environmental impacts associated with a specific product, 

Market analysis Product design R D Raw materials energy acquisition Manufacturing processing Transportation distribution Product usage Post-use disposition Customer environmental requirements Redesign for compliance Cost versus function versus environmental impacts Compliance costs resource productivity Palletization efficiency/space utilization Cost versus function versus environmental impacts Disposal cost/potential liability 

The terms LCA and cradle-to-grave analysis indicate that it is not the products per se that are analyzed, but in fact product systems in the sense of the production-consnmption-waste treatment systems (Bousead and Hancock, 1989). However, the function of the product as it is used remains the point of reference to which the environmental impacts are attributed. LCAs assist in evaluating proposed changes to product or process designs so that a tradeoff can be identified. 

Let us look at the stages of an LCA, as it would apply to technologies and processes (see table 4.4). It becomes apparent that the application of the LCA methodology to solvent choices bears closer scrutiny. 

We can apply the same analysis to table 4.1 (Components of an LCA) in terms of how it might be applicable to the choice and evaluation of solvents. Below we will look at the components, asking the same questions as before, and now how they might 

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