Life cycle assessment product system

Vinyl Products Life Cycle Assessment, Chem Systems, Inc., Tarrytown, N.Y., Mar. 1992. 

Traditional methods for clean manufacturing focus on waste or energy audits, which are summarized in Section 4.1. New methods focus on life cycle design, life cycle assessment, production planning models with environmental considerations, and environmental management systems, which are described in Sections 4.2, 4.3, 4.4, and 4.5, respectively. 

Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a compilation and evaluation of inputs, outputs, and the potential environmental impacts of a product system throughout its life cycle. The LCA methodology is comprehensively described based on the ISO 14000 series standards. References are also given to I.CA information sources. 

Cederberg, C. and Stadig, M. (2003). System expansion and allocation in life cycle assessment of milk and beef production. Int. J. LCA 8,350-356. 

Rotz, C. A., Montes, F., and Chianese, D. S. (2010). The carbon footprint of dairy production systems through partial life cycle assessment. J. Dairy Sci. 93,1266-1282. 

During the life cycle assessment, the study authors are very often confronted with the fact that the product system has at its end more than one output. In these cases, we use the allocation. Allocation means the assignment of the share of total environmental burden to particular outputs [32]. The Standard recommends to avoid the allocation whenever possible, e.g. by extending systems or sub-division processes [36]. 

Thomassen MA, van Calker KJ, Smiths MCJ, Iepema GL, de Boer IJM. Life Cycle Assessment of Conventional and Organic Milk Production in the Netherlands. Agricultural Systems. 2008 96(l-3) 95-107. DOI 10.1016/j.agsy.2007.06.001... 

The EPS system was initially developed to be used within the product development process as a tool to help assess the environmental performance of products. The system is based on LCA (Life Cycle Assessment) methodology and uses inventory data (kg of substance A), characterization factors (impact/kg of substance X) and weighting factors (cost/impacts) to calculate the external costs or values of a product. By multiplying the characterization factor with the weighting factor, an impact index is obtained (cost/kg of substance X) which describe the cost/values related to the emission per use of a kg of a certain substance. 

Wegener Sleeswijk A, van Oers LFCM, Guinee JB, Struijs J, Huijbregts MAJ (2008) Normalisation in product life cycle assessment an LCA of the global and European economic systems in the year 2000. Sci Total Environ 390(l) 227-240... 

Dezhen Chen XZaGZ (2007) Life cycle assessment of RDF production from aged MSW and its utilization system. In International conference on sustainable - solid waste management, Chennai... 

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. 

Brentrup, F., Kiisters, J., Lammel, J., Barraclough, P. and Kuhlmann, H. 2004. Environmental impact assessment of agricultural production systems using the life cycle assessment methodology. II. The application to N fertilizer use in winter wheat production systems. European Journal of Agronomy 20(3) 265-279. 

The focus of this program was to evaluate the environmental impacts of the current standard material formulations and alternative formulations.95 The partnership used a life-cycle assessment (LCA) approach to examine the impacts of heat stabilizers, polymer systems, and flame-retardants used in insulation and jacketing for selected wire and cable products. The project began in March 2004 and the report was issued in May 2008.96... 

The ISO 14000 series of standards, known informally as Environmental ISO, is a set of generic standards developed by the ISO to provide organizations with a framework for managing the environmental impact of their activities. Environmental disciplines including the basic environmental management system, product labeling, criteria for auditing, and life-cycle assessment are included. 

With the Life Cycle Assessment method developed from the late 1980s of the twentieth century, it has become possible to assess the overall envirOTunental impacts caused by products or product systems. With the help of LCA, parts, components, complete products as well as technologies and processes of any t)q)e, material, purpose and in any industry can be investigated and possibilities for an ecological optimization can be identified. 

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. 

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

Grossmann I.E. 2003. Challenges in the new millennium product discovery and design, enterprise and supply chain optimization, global life cycle assessment. PSE 2003. 8th International Symposium on Process Systems Engineering, China. 

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