Integrating life cycle assessment and health risk assessment of direct and indirect exposure (case study: A combined cycle power plant)

Abstract

In order to achieve the goals of sustainable development, the integration of life cycle assessment (LCA) and health risk assessment (HRA) as complementary tools is an effective step towards comprehensive environmental management. As the need for electricity generation is growing increasingly, the integration of these tools can provide a broader perspective for decision-makers and policy-makers. Due to the lack of research in the field of HRA of indirect exposure during the life cycle of an industry, this study was conducted with the aim of applying a comprehensive approach of integrating LCA and HRA. We investigated the emissions to air and water as direct and indirect exposure, respectively, in a combined cycle power plant in Iran. Based the results, the emission of ammonia and sulfuric acid showed the highest amount of non-cancer risks (HQ > 1), and the cancer risks of hydrazine and tetrachloromethane were also more than the limits set by the World Health Organization (WHO). Based on the risk assessment for indirect exposure through the food chain, the amount of petroleum compounds in the effluent was regarded as worrying due to their high risk. LCA was performed with ReCiPe method at midpoint and endpoint levels. The indicator result of human toxicity (HT) impact category at the midpoint level was 1.99E-03. Then, the results of the direct and indirect health exposure assessment were replaced by the characterization factor (CF) in the life cycle impact assessment stage in the HT impact category at the midpoint level and the indicator result was changed to 4.82E−03. This study showed, the integration of LCA and HRA increases the importance of the evaluation and the findings are closer to the real values. The developed framework increases the levels of interaction between the two tools and the LCA results, can identify the processes with the best environmental performance. Determining the uncertainty of the presented model indicated that “fossil fuel depletion” had the most environmental effects among the endpoint impact categories.