Application of the Life-Cycle Assessment Method for Pollution Prevention in Klaipėda Sea Port, Lithuania

Abstract

Dvarionienė, J.; Zobėlaitė-Noreikienė, G.; Kruopiene, J., and Stasiškienė, Z., 2013. Application of the life-cycle assessment method for pollution prevention in Klaipėda sea port, Lithuania.Lithuania is one of the countries that have ratified the Marpol 73/78 Convention, which foresees the tools of reduction and prevention of sea pollution by bilge water and other substances. The Directive of the European Parliament and Council 2000/59/EB is addressed to the reduction of waste onboard ships and its wash overboard. Analysis of the ships entering Klaipėda sea port has estimated that oil waste constitutes about 74% of the whole collected waste amount. Engine bilge water is specific and hazardous to the environment because it is a liquid compound of water and oil products capable of making steady emulsions. It also acquires specific properties during various technological processes. Equipment, technological processes, specificity of the control related to combustibility and flammability, as well as conformity to the requirements of the International and European Union Rights, technological process management, and documents are needed for the management of this specific waste. For this reason, separation of this oily water from the common oil-polluted waste and analysis of these streams of waste treatment are of great importance to enhance the effectiveness of environmental protection during the management process of this oily waste. Applying a system approach to the oily waste in the port, we set up a waste management system algorithm based on the life cycle. The system of port waste management is a set of technological processes, each of them performing a certain function and requiring stock, electric energy, fuel, transport, heat, technological equipment, etc. Having made the environmental assessment, a suggestion was made to convert the waste resulting from the engine bilge water treatment into energy and to use it in a technological process when closing (finishing) the life cycle. In this paper, a life-cycle assessment (LCA) was performed to identify and quantify the environmental impacts caused by the ship-generated waste management, focusing on oily waters of the port of Klaipėda. LCA methodology was used to evaluate the environmental performance of ship-generated waste management of Klaipėda port, according to international standards.