Life Cycle Assessment Flashcards
Define LCA
LCA is a way of quantifying the environmental impact of a product over its whole life time; It encourages product designers to avoid a narrow focus on specific environmental issues. It considers impact cardle to grave
How can LCA help avoid a narrow outlook on environmental concerns? (3)
1) Compiling an inventory of relevant energy and material inputs and environmental releases;
2) Evaluating the potential impacts associated with identified inputs and releases;
3) Interpreting the results to help make a more informed decision.[2]
What are the four phases of LCA?
1) Goal and scope – why is the analysis being conducted and what exactly falls within the scope of analysis
2) Inventory analysis – a flow model of the overall system is built, and data regarding to inputs (raw materials) and outputs (waste) is collected and calculated
3) Impact assessment – environmental impact of the inputs and outputs is calculated according to the chosen method
4) Interpretation – to give recommendation with regard to the original goal
What are the four types of LCA?
- LCA Accounting – absolute value
- Change orientated LCA – impact of a change
- Screen LCA – don’t want precise values just a broad brush stroke to see which is best (gfoucs our attention here because it’s better than that)
- Complete LCA – accurate number
What are the some of the challenges for LCA when looking at electronics? (6)
- Input data is scare
- Large supply chains – high potential cut off error (missing parts which are significant)
- Quick change of material – change of products change very quickly
- Quick change of product composition
- Large amount of air-shipping – high value electronics is worth moving quickly
- Use patterns will change a lot – amount of energy used by the product is important – varies significantly
what are the two difference between EIO LCA and normal LCA?
- The unit of analysis in the industry sector rather than the process. Hence it is less detailed
a. Government already have the data which makes it easer
b. They create input-output tables for different parts of the economy - The approach to allocation is financial rather than based on mass or energy flow
Describe an example of inaccuracy in an EIO LCA
- Assumes a company invests in a clean manufacturing plan and so reduces its impact
- But passes on some of the costs to the consumer in the form of increased prices
- It’s actual emissions/impacts go down
- But according to the EIOLCA, its share of the sectoral impacts will increase
Name the positives of EIO LCA (6)
- Includes activity of the whole economy: even minor contributors. Therefore the system boundary is large compared with a typical LCA process
- Quick, cheap and easy to perform
- Publically available data so easy to replicate
- Good for national level analyses to guide policy
- Broad brush assessments of future products
- Providing inputs into parts of a process LCA (Hybrid LCA)
Name four negatives of LCA
- Aggregate, sectoral level analysis – certain things will be missed
- Financial allocation may not reflect reality
- Data is old, assumes US (or another specific country/region), and uncertain
- Not good for detailed assessments of change to a manufacturing process or identifying process ‘hot spot’
Describe the Hybrid Approach to LCA
A hybrid LCA uses both EIO and process based approaches, aiming for the best of both:
- EIO approach to assess the impacts associated with inputs to a process model e.g. coal, iron
- EIO for cradle-to-gate; process for use-phase e.g. car manufacturing, then car us
- Process-based analysis to adjust the assumptions around direct environmental impacts of a sector. E.g. compare a new iron smelting process with the industry average process. Propagate through the model.
Ten things to consider for the scope of an LCA?
- Functional unit (quantity of product being assessed) and reference flow
- System boundaries – edge of the process or geographic boundaries
- Description of the data categories to be used
- Criteria for inclusion of inputs/outputs
- Data quality requirements
- Impact categories /assessment methodology
- Methods of handling multi-functionity and allocation
- Key assumptions and limitation
- Critical review
- Environmental impact categories
What are the three ReCipe perspectives/scenarios about the future?
ReCiPe is the most recent and harmonized indicator approach available in life cycle impact assessment.
Dealing with the future – both uncertainty about the future and also moral question. ReCiPe perspectives/scenarios
• INDIVIDUALIST – short term, certain impacts, optimistic
o Shorter time frame
• HIERARCHIST – current policy principles ( less optimistic)
• EGALITARIAN – long-term, precautionary wrt evidence (most pessimistic)
What should be included in the LCA goal?
Should include what question(s) the assessment is aiming to answer and who the target audience is.
Define functional unit
The functional unit is a specified quantity of product/service delivered by the product system, which is assessed by the LCA.
What is meant by allocation?
When a multiple products/services/processes (inputs or outputs) share an LCA process, the environmental load of the process needs to be shared (allocated) appropriately
between them.
