Life Cycle Performance Assessment (LCPA) Tools

Abstract

In this chapter, the assessment of both the economic and environmental performance of a vessel over its life cycle is addressed, having as a reference approach the Life Cycle Performance Assessment (LCPA) Tool under development in HOLISHIP project. First, on the basis of a literature review, the concepts of life cycle cost and life cycle assessment are briefly recalled. The ideal target is that these two issues shall be integrated and adapted into the ship design process within a circular economy perspective. Then, a separate reference is made to the end of ship’s life phase, explaining the possible strategies to be adopted and highlighting the limitation in estimating energetic and economic performances of this phase in an early design stage. The issue is nevertheless of increasing interest to this regard, as well. A brief review of Codes and Rules related to End-of-Life assessment procedures is also presented. After this, the selection of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) adopted for the LCPA tool is discussed. These KPIs have been divided in two separate categories: environmental and economic. A methodology to compare KPIs for different ship configurations is then proposed, with an attempt to perform an integrated assessment of environmental and economic aspects. Finally, the relation between KPIs and vessel characteristics is presented. Depending on the level of detail available, the calculation of KPIs and its accuracy are varying accordingly. Finally, issues of uncertainty of certain parameters (e.g. fuel price, freight rates) and their effect on the KPIs are briefly addressed, and ways to their consideration are outlined. Results of application of the HOLISHIP LCPA will be presented in the planned Volume II of the HOLISHIP project.