Life Cycle Assesement Ireneusz Zbicinski Lodz, Technical University BUP Conference, April, 2012, Rogów

Product life cycle Interaction with environment Life Cycle Assessment

Definitions According to the ISO DIS standards: Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is defined as a method for analysing and determining the environmental impact along the product chain of (technical) systems. Life Cycle Assessment

According to ISO 14040, the formal definition of LCA is as follows: Life Cycle Assessment “LCA is a technique for assessing the environmental aspects and potential impacts associated with a product by: compiling an inventory of relevant inputs and outputs of a product; evaluating the potential environmental impacts associated with those inputs and outputs; interpreting the results of the inventory analysis and impact assessment phases in relation to the objectives of the study”.

Life Cycle Assessment Goal and scope definition (ISO 14040) Inventory analysis (ISO 14041) Impact assessment (ISO 14042) Interpretation (ISO 14043) Direct application: product development and improvement Strategic planning Public policy making Marketing Other

1.Goal definition and scope 2.Inventory analysis 3.Impact assessment with four sub-phases: classification,characterisation, normalisation, weighting 4.Improvement assessment Life Cycle Assessment Quantitative methods

What is the product to be investigated (functional unit)? The measure of performance which the system delivers... Scope of the study: depth and breadth (system boundaries)? Endlessly branched process tree Life Cycle Assessment 1.Goal definition and scope

Environmental indices for LCA analysis of a passenger car and municipal bus regardless of the functional unit (Eco-indicator 99) Life Cycle Assessment Definiton of functional unit !

Life Cycle Assessment Inventory analysis (core of an LCA) constructing a process flow chart (so-called process tree) collecting the data for each event; emmisions, resources used relating the data to a chosen functional unit (allocation) developing an overall energy and material balance (all inputs and outputs from the entire life cycle) - an inventory table, accuracy!

production of a window usage phase disposal of a window aluminium for profiles steel high alloy for anchors and ferrules Ethylene-propylene rubber for gasket colourless glass for panes Aluminium and zinc alloy for handles spare gasket spare ferrules recycling of glass recycling of aluminium parts recycling of handles recycling of anchors and ferrules discarded gaskets and thermal barrier

Life Cycle Assessment A simplified process tree for a LCA of an aluminium window

Life Cycle Assessment Process Tree for a Coffee Machine (simplyfied)

Life Cycle Assessment White boxes are not included in assessment/inventory Process Tree for a Coffee Machine (simplyfied)

Life Cycle Assessment Selected item in an inventory table for production of 1 kg of PVC (Sima Pro)

Life Cycle Assessment Impact assessment obligatory steps: classification and characterisation optional steps: normalisation and weighting

Life Cycle Assessment The impact assessment focuses on characterizing the type and severity of environmental impact more specifically. The impact assessment focuses on characterizing the type and severity of environmental impact more specifically. Life Cycle Inventory results Impact categories Category indicator results Environmental profile Weighting One-dimensional environmental score Normalization Characterization Classification ISO mandatory ISO optional

Life Cycle Assessment Schematic representation of the Eco-indicator weighting method

Life Cycle Assessment A single figure is needed for comparison purposes Several methods exists, but it is still a controversial issue and no singular widely accepted method exists. Many well-documened methods are used: Eco-indicator 99 Eco-indicator 95 MIPS Ecopoints EDIP\UMIP EDIP/UMIP 96 EPS 2000 Economic Input Output, Etc,

Life Cycle Assessment For the valuation, the distance to target principle is used, the targets are based on scientific data on …… The targets values are related to three types of environmental damage:  deterioration of ecosystems (a target level has been chosen at which “only” 5% ecosystem degradation will still occur over several decades)  deterioriation of human health (this refers in particular to winter and summer smog and the acceptable level set is that smog periods should hardly ever occur again)  human deaths (the level chosen as acceptable is 1 fatality per million inhabitants per year) Eco-Indicator 95

Life Cycle Assessment Classification of Impacts Lack of a universally accepted appropriate official list of environmental impacts to consider. A “standard” list of environmental impacts does exists. These are all environmental problems such as: resource depletion, toxicity, global warming, ozone depletion, eutrophication, acidification, etc. The choice of impact categories is subjective.

Classification Classification: the first step to higher aggregation of the data. The inventory table is rearranged in such a way that under each impact category, all the relevant emissions or material consumption are listed (qualitatively and quantitatively). Life Cycle Assessment

Characterisation – Equivalence Factors Substances contributing to the impact categories were taken from an inventory table and ascribed to a certain group. Different substances among one group contribute differently to the impact category. During the characterisation step the relative strength of the emission is evaluated and contributions to each environmental problem are quantified.

Life Cycle Assessment Characterisation characterisation: global warming equivalence factors GWP (Global Warming Potential) contribution to global warming (kg equivalent CO 2 ) substanceamount (kg) methane CO N2ON2O CH 2 Cl CFCl Σ The final result of the characterisation step is a list of potential environmental impacts. This list of effect scores (each for each category) is called the “environmental profile”.

Life Cycle Assessment Characterisation Environmental Profiles The final result of the characterisation step is a list of potential environmental impacts. This list of effect scores, one for each category, is called the environmental profile of the product or service. Environmental profiles. The impact of a life cycle may be expressed as the sum of each kind of impact summed over the entire life cycle or as the impact expressed separately for each life stage

Example of environmental profile Life Cycle Assessment Characterisation

Normalisation is performed to make the effect scores of the environmental profile comparable Life Cycle Assessment Estimation of the “Belgian annual effect scores” Normalization

Life Cycle Assessment Normalisation Characterisation

impact categoryweighting factor greenhouse2.5 ozone layer100 acidification10 eutrophication5 heavy metals5 carcinogens10 winter smog5 summer smog2.5 pesticides25 Weighting factors assumed in Eco-indicator 95 Life Cycle Assessment Weighting

1.panel of experts 2.social evaluation 3.prevention costs 4.energy consumption 5.avoiding weighting by using only one environmental effect 6.Distance-to -Target principle (seriousness of an effect can be related to the difference between the current and target values) Life Cycle Assessment Weighting Establishing weighting factors

Life Cycle Assessment Eco-indicator 99 Potentially Disappeared Fraction (PDF) Potentially Disappeared Fraction DALY (Disability Adjusted Life Years)

Improvement assessment 1.Uncertainty: subjective choices cannot be avoided and some uncertainty will remain (e.g. system boundaries, allocation rules, characterisation models). 2.sensitivity analysis: how stable the results are 3.contribution analysis: to find the processes of the highest significance and determine their contribution in the environmental index. 4.identification and evaluation of possible actions Life Cycle Assessment

There are two main sources of uncertainty. First is the quality of the data – data often comes from different sources, estimates, assumptions, theoretical calculation, etc.. Secondly any LCA, includes subjective choices which cannot be avoided – uncertainty is part of the model, e.g. system boundaries, allocation rules, characterisation models. A sensitivity analysis is made to check how stable the results are. It should be proved that input data and methodological choices do not influence the results of an LCA too much. Uncertainty

Eco-indicator 99 Eco-indicator 95 MIPS Ecopoints EDIP\UMIP EDIP/UMIP 96 EPS 2000 Economic Input Output, Etc, Life Cycle Assessment Good reproducibility of different techinques ! Lack of standards, no accepted LCA methodolody, high costs (time, efforts) inconsistent data, data not directly applicable due to different goals and scope, mistakes are easy made

LCA for an aluminium window

Total mass of an aluminium window: kg Aluminium profiles are produced by Metalplast-Bielsko Co., Poland, in extrusion process. The transport road length (Bielsko-Lodz) is around 254 km. Ferrules are imported from Austria via Czekanów (600 km). “Float” type glass is produced in Sandomierz (Poland). It is integrated hermetically into window panes in Częstochowa (distance 320 km). During 50-year use, the window requires two replacements of ferrules (about every 20 years) and four replacements of gaskets (every 10 th year). These elements have their own life cycles. The replaced ferrules are scrapped and gaskets are discarded. After 50 years, a window is dismounted. Aluminium elements, handles, ferrules, anchors and panes can be recycled. The rest, i.e. gaskets and the thermal barrier, are discarded, partly incinerated and partly landfilled (according to a Dutch scenario of municipal waste utilisation). Instead of dividing the transport according to particular groups of objects, it is assumed that the whole window is transported at a distance of 50 km. Due to the lack of sufficient data, the following operations have been neglected in the analysis: window cleaning, powder coating of the aluminium profiles with the chromated polyester lacquer, joining the elements with glue, filling the cracks between a window and a wall with polyurethane foam and glass fibre and sealing them with silicone, elements necessary for glass integration (small amounts of butyl, thioplast and aluminium frames).