Tenta Flashcards
Data quality requirements, Representativity
Time coverage
Technology coverage
Geographic coverage
State or effect of change (average or marginal data)
Data quality requirements, Uncertainty
Precision
Completeness
Data quality requirements good phrasing
as complete, reliable and recent as possible. A pedigree matrix might be used to evaluate the data
(Average if ALCA marginal if CLCA.)
Reporting and critical review
The report could either be for internal use and improvement, or public for use in environmental market communication. If the report is for external use, it should be critically reviewed regarding correctness and transparency. Even if no critical review is required, the report would still benefit from review by experts on the proposed materials and manufacturers
Which type of allocation should be first choice and why?
Allocation based on physical principles should be the first choice according to the ISO standard. In this case both mass and energy allocation could be used, although data are missing for doing a proper energy allocation. Mass allocation would thus be a good choice based on the argument given above
When can economic allocation be suitable?
Economic allocation could also be used because the business concept is developed with the purpose of making money. It can also be argued to use it due to a large price difference between the products (similar to mining of e.g. Pt next to Cu).
Since it reflects the value of the products. Probably, it is the economic value of the product and byproducts that keep the palm oil production going, thus causing the energy use, and should therefore be used to allocate that energy use.
How can allocation be avoided?
Avoiding allocation via partitioning can be accomplished via system subdivision or system expansion.
That is, enough detail should be applied in the LCA model to avoid allocation, or the system should be expanded by considering the conventional alternatives for the production of adipic acid and lutein (and possibly an alternative energy source to account for the possible excess lignin that is being used).
GWP unit CO2, which impact category?
Global warming
Do not say potential if asked for impact category!!
AP unit SO2, which impact category?
Acidification
EP unit PO4, which impact category?
Eutrophication
POCP unit C2H4, which impact category?
Photo-chemical ozone creation
If in an impact assessment different scenarios are shown (best case, worst case etc.), what should be mentioned when discussing how representative on of the cases are?
Knowledge of the system
Dominance analysis
Analysis where the impact from different activities of the processes are compared
How to motivate that it is cradle-to-gate?
production is in focus and further use is not considered
Name one thing which is important for a fore- and background to avoid a mismatch
They should be situated at the same point in time in the future. If this is not the case, the results indeed show such a mismatch which may lead to a wrong interpretation and ultimately a wrong decision based on these results.
Contribution analysis
Similar to dominance analysis but the environmental loads (instead of activities) which contribute most to the total environmental impact
break-even analysis
used to investigate trade-off environmental impacts that are related to the use of the studied products
decision maker analysis
identification of different companies/organisations that carry out the different activities in the product system and extent of the environmental impact under their control
Ways to test robustness of results (6)
completeness check
consistency check
uncertainity analysis
sensitivity analysis
variation analysis
data quality assessment
DLUC
direct Land Use Change
PLCA
prospective Life Cycle Assessment
AoP
Areas of Potection
FU
Functional Unit
LCI
Life Cycle Inventory
CF
Characterization Factor / Carbon Footprint
FEP
Freshwater Eutrophication Potential
EPD
Environmental Production Declaration
DfX
Design for X
PCR
Product Category Rules
Goal & scope definition
The first step in doing an LCA in which the goal (what, why, for who, purpose (specific question) (the contextual aspects), and the scope (the modelling aspects), e.g. functional unit, system boundaries, impact categories, allocation approaches, etc. are defined
Describe Scope 2 GHG emissions
Indirect GHG emissions from purchased electricity
Describe Unit process
It is “the atom of an LCI model” and describes what the inputs (elementary flows from nature (e.g. resource use), product flows from other unit processes, waste flows from other unit processes) to and outputs from (elementary flows to nature (e.g. CO2 emissions), product and waste flows to other unit processes) this process are.
Describe Classification
The step in life cycle impact assessment in which the elementary flows are classified according to their potential contribution to an impact category.
System boundaries: natural system
land occupation/transformation included, if needed
System boundaries: geographical system
It is explicitly mentioned that the complete life cycle of the product takes place in the same location as for manufacturing. Resource extraction can take place elsewhere
System boundaries: time horizon/Temporal system
determined by the life time of the product as whole
Assumptions and limitations:
Allocation may be needed for…
Transportation of raw material resources is done by truck, train, or ship(e.g. fossil resources).
Access to primary data on manufacturing is guaranteed
The use phase is x years depending on the intentional use .
What is midpoint indicator?
indicate effects early in cause-effect chain
What is endpoint indicator?
Indicate damage to selected areas of protection later in cause-effect chain
Damage to human health, damage to ecosystems and damage to resource availability
What are the two common strategies for the selection of life cycle impact categories?
1 Shotgun all impact categories that are part of the given method (something can be missed or be overwhelming for audience)
2 Sniper short list of targeted impact categories that are specifically chosen
Pros and cons of weighting
Advantages: Helps to resolve trade-offs and ease interpretation and communication. Useful in other environmental systems tools.
Disadvantages: Includes value judgement and is is barred in the ISO standard for “comparative assertions disclosed to the public”
Scenarios can be predictive, explorative or normative. Explain what each type of scenario aims to achieve
Predictive: what will happen;
explorative: what could happen;
normative: what should happen.
Signs that a case is explorative
Different possible futures are modelled. This indicates that these futures could happen and that thus an explorative approach is taken.
iLUC
Indirect Land Use Change
ADP
Abiotic resource Depletion Potential
eq
equivalents
LCIA
Life Cycle Impact Assessment
C-LCA
Consequential-LCA
GWP20
Global Warming Potential over 20 years
DQR
Data Quality Requirement
Potential Disappearing Fraction of species
Describe The LCA framework
An established procedure for LCA, comprising the goal and scope definition, inventory analysis, impact assessment and interpretation steps
Describe System boundary
The (technical) boundary that delimits the product system under study from the natural environment and other product systems
Describe Elementary flow
Flows between the environment and the technosphere
System boundaries: tehnical system
See initial flowchart, Capital goods and personell
expluced.
Describe functional unit
A unit that expresses the function of a product system quantitatively and serves as a basis for product comparisons
Carbon footprint
LCA study with respect to greenhouse gases only.
(Can also mean greenhouse gas emissions from other types entities, using other system boundaries, e.g. the carbon footprint of an organisation)
Reason for critical review
correctness and transparency
Between which outputs should allocation be?
Bw products for multi output, not for losses
How to find hotspots in result analysis?
The tallest bars!
Abiotic resource depletion
potential
Midpoint impact assessment method for abiotic resources, such as minerals and metals
Land use change
Alterations of land that can cause environmental impacts
Disability-adjusted life years
A measure of overall disease burden, expressed as the number of years lost due to ill-health, disability or early death
Area of protection
The endpoints / safeguard subjects of an LCA, specifically human health, the natural environment and natural resources
Restriction on hazardous
substances
EU directive prohibiting the use heavy metals and other chemicals in electric and electronic equipment
Global warming potential
Characterization factor for the climate change impact category
Life cycle inventory analysis
The second phase of the LCA framework, including data gathering as well as calculation of input and output flows
Functional unit
Unit that expresses the function of a product system quantitatively and serves as a basis for product comparisons
Characterization factor
Parameters based on impact pathway models that reflect the environmental or resource impact of the emissions or resource
Describe CLCA
Change-oriented type of LCA that quantifies the environmental consequenses of an action
Describe Inventory table
Table showing life cycle inventory analysis results in terms
of inputs and outputs per functional unit
describe ReCiPe
A package of impact assessment methods covering midpoint, endpoint and weighting
Describe weighting
The aggregation of all environmental and resource impacts into a single score
Name 10 impact categories
- Global warming
- Eutrophication
- Acidification
- photochemical ozone creation
- Energy use
- Land use
- Water use
- Fossil resource depletion
- Abiotic resource depletion
- Biodiversity
