Sustainability analysis on polymers using life cycle assessment tool (OPENLCA)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ganeshan Gujilva Natarajan ◽  
R. Kamalakannan ◽  
R. Vijayakumar
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Assessment Tool ◽  
Sustainability Analysis

scholarly journals Mitigation Life Cycle Assessment: Best Practices from LCA of Energy and Water Infrastructure That Incurs Impacts to Mitigate Harm

Energies ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 992 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily Grubert ◽  
Jennifer Stokes-Draut
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Best Practices ◽  
Assessment Tool ◽  
Sustainability Assessment ◽  
Functional Unit ◽  
Environmental Harm ◽  
Environmental Costs ◽  
Lca Results

Climate change will require societal-scale infrastructural changes. Balancing priorities for water, energy, and climate will demand that approaches to water and energy management deviate from historical practice. Infrastructure designed to mitigate environmental harm, particularly related to climate change, is likely to become increasingly prevalent. Understanding the implications of such infrastructure for environmental quality is thus of interest. Environmental life cycle assessment (LCA) is a common sustainability assessment tool that aims to quantify the total, multicriteria environmental impact caused by a functional unit. Notably, however, LCA quantifies impacts in the form of environmental “costs” of delivering the functional unit. In the case of mitigation infrastructures, LCA results can be confusing because they are generally reported as the harmful impacts of performing mitigation rather than as net impacts that incorporate benefits of successful mitigation. This paper argues for defining mitigation LCA as a subtype of LCA to facilitate better understanding of results and consistency across studies. Our recommendations are informed by existing LCA literature on mitigation infrastructure, focused particularly on stormwater and carbon management. We specifically recommend that analysts: (1) use a performance-based functional unit; (2) be attentive to burden shifting; and (3) assess and define uncertainty, especially related to mitigation performance.

Development of a BIM-based Environmental and Economic Life Cycle Assessment tool

2020 ◽  
Vol 265 ◽  
pp. 121705 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rúben Santos ◽  
António Aguiar Costa ◽  
José D. Silvestre ◽  
Lincy Pyl
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Assessment Tool ◽  
Economic Life ◽  
Economic Life Cycle

scholarly journals Ecodesign — Carbon Footprint — Life Cycle Assessment — Life Cycle Sustainability Analysis. A Flexible Framework for a Continuum of Tools

2010 ◽  
Vol 4 (-1) ◽  
pp. 42-46 ◽  
Author(s):  
Reinout Heijungs
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Carbon Footprint ◽  
Full Spectrum ◽  
Work Related ◽  
Sustainability Analysis ◽  
Special Cases ◽  
Flexible Framework ◽  
Answering Questions

Ecodesign — Carbon Footprint — Life Cycle Assessment — Life Cycle Sustainability Analysis. A Flexible Framework for a Continuum of Tools Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a tool for answering questions related to environmental impacts of products. It is a comprehensive tool, addressing the entire life cycle, and addressing the full spectrum of environmental impacts. There are two opposite movements occurring: LCA is getting smaller, and it is getting broader. This presentation presents the general framework for a broader life cycle sustainability analysis (LCSA), and shows how the practical work related to doing an LCA, a carbon footprint, or an analysis for ecodesign, can be seen as special cases.

scholarly journals A Reflection of the Use of the Life Cycle Assessment Tool for Agri-Food Sustainability

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 71 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oriana Gava ◽  
Fabio Bartolini ◽  
Francesca Venturi ◽  
Gianluca Brunori ◽  
Angela Zinnai ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Social Impact ◽  
Assessment Tool ◽  
Sustainability Assessment ◽  
Consumer Information ◽  
Policy Interventions ◽  
Security Research ◽  
Business To Consumer ◽  
Development Goals

In pursuit of agricultural sustainability and food security, research should contribute to policy-making by providing scientifically robust evidence. Life cycle assessment (LCA) is an excellent candidate for generating that evidence, thereby helping the selection of interventions towards more sustainable agri-food. The purpose of this article is proposing a basis for discussion on the use of the LCA tool for targeting and monitoring of environmental policy interventions in agri-food. The problem of reducing the environmental burden in agri-food can be tackled by acting on the supply and/or demand sides and may benefit from the collaboration of supply chain stakeholders. Agri-food policies that most benefit from LCA-based data concern cross-border pollution, transaction costs following the adoption of environmental standards, adoption of less polluting practices and/or technologies, and business-to-consumer information asymmetry. The choice between the methodological options available for LCA studies (attributional, consequential, or hybrid models) depends on the purpose and scope of the study. The possibility of integrating the LCA with economic and social impact assessments—e.g., under the life cycle sustainability assessment framework—makes LCA an excellent tool for monitoring business or sectoral-level achievements with respect to UN 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.

scholarly journals Life Cycle Assessment Tool Implemented in Household Refrigeration Industry: A Magnetic Cooling Prototype Development

2017 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. 231-238 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rossella Luglietti ◽  
Paolo Rosa ◽  
Alessandro Pastore ◽  
Sergio Terzi ◽  
Marco Taisch
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Assessment Tool ◽  
Prototype Development ◽  
Magnetic Cooling

Development of a Life-Cycle Assessment Tool to Quantify the Environmental Impacts of Airport Pavement Construction

2017 ◽  
Vol 2603 (1) ◽  
pp. 89-97 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebekah Yang ◽  
Imad L. Al-Qadi
Keyword(s):  
Monte Carlo ◽  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Portland Cement ◽  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Assessment Tool ◽  
Original Design ◽  
Material Production ◽  
Airport Pavement ◽  
Pavement Construction

The environmental impacts of airport pavement construction were evaluated in this study through a life-cycle analysis approach. Total primary energy (TPE) consumption and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from material production and construction of pavement were determined by using life-cycle assessment (LCA), a quantitative methodology described in the ISO 14040 series. A tool was developed to implement a probabilistic LCA through the Monte Carlo method. This tool allowed for consideration of uncertainty from life-cycle inventory data. A case study on the construction of Runway 10R-28L at Chicago O'Hare International Airport focused on mainline and shoulder pavement designs. Environmental impacts from producing materials for the pavements increased from lower to upper layers, while asphalt layers had relatively higher TPE consumption than the upper portland cement concrete layer—and vice versa for GHGs. Impacts from material production overshadowed those from construction, which contributed less than 2% of TPE consumption and GHGs. Further analysis showed that two production processes—for asphalt binder and portland cement—were the leading contributors (45.3% and 29.2%, respectively) of TPE consumption, while the latter was the leading contributor (73.4%) of GHGs. A probabilistic analysis compared the original 10R-28L runway design and a modified design that did not use recycled materials or warm-mix asphalt technology. The results from 1,000 Monte Carlo simulations showed that the environmental impacts from the two cases were statistically significant, with the original design having lower TPE consumption (482 versus 693 MJ/yd2 for TPE) and GHGs (37.5 versus 53.9 kg of carbon dioxide equivalent per square yard).

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