Interpretation Of Life Cycle Assessment Research Articles

Innovative Teaching Method of Circularity Design for Sustainable Manufacturing Systems: an Application on Urban Factories

Laws to mitigate the impacts of the industries and responsible consumption trends have been pushing manufacturers to integrate sustainability in their business models. In this context, circular economy and sustainable manufacturing have become key interests for manufacturers, and thus should be included in higher education curricula for industrial engineering students. However, tools and sources for these new subjects are scarce. Such multidisciplinary topics require practical innovative teaching approaches with suitable evaluation approaches. Such a proposal is presented in this paper to define a set of pedagogical specifications for both hard and soft skills required to design sustainable and circular proposals for urban factories. First, the students are required to define the scope of impact mitigation through the interpretation of life cycle assessment (LCA) results for a case study. Then, a roleplay has been developed with the objective of improving sustainability using sustainable manufacturing practices and circular economy strategies. The design phase is supported by a package of databases and instructions, alongside tools and templates for expected deliverables including LCA and sustainable business model canvas. To enable innovation and design thinking, feedbacks have been given to students on a regular basis with the aim to improve outcomes prior to the final deliverable. Evaluation has been conducted through an oral presentation in front of academic and specialized external experts, followed by a discussion and a deliberation. This proposal has been tested in a class of 40 industrial engineering students during a semester for a course dedicated to urban factories. All groups have successfully achieved the specifications of the course, and have demonstrated additional soft skills such as teamwork, time management, and effective presentation.

Uncertainty analysis of life cycle assessment of asphalt surfacings

The Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of asphalt pavements are associated with significant uncertainty resulting from variability in the quantity and impact of individual components, the quality of data for each component, and variability of asphalt durability. This study presents a framework to quantify and incorporate the uncertainty of LCA and asphalt durability data into LCA of asphalt surfacings. The suggested framework includes: estimating the uncertainty of asphalt production processes by the pedigree matrix method, conducting a deterministic LCA, applying Monte Carlo Simulation (MCS) to estimate the probability density functions (PDFs) of the considered impacts using the uncertainty data, deterministic solution, and asphalt durability. This framework was applied to six asphalt mixtures; the results show that there is significant uncertainty in the processes that contribute to the environmental impacts. They also showed that considering asphalt durability and its uncertainty is critical and can significantly change the results and interpretation of LCA.

Assessing catchment scale water quality of agri-food systems and the scope for reducing unintended consequences using spatial life cycle assessment (LCA).

Life cycle assessment is a multidisciplinary framework usually deployed to appraise the sustainability of various product or service supply-chains. Over recent decades, its use in the agri-food sector has risen sharply, and alongside this, a wide range of methodological advances have been generated. Spatial-life cycle assessment, defined in the current document as the interpretation of life cycle assessment results within a geographical nature, has not gone unexplored entirely, yet its rise as a sub-method of life cycle assessment has been rather slow relative to other avenues of research (e.g., including the nutritional sciences within life cycle assessment). With this relative methodological stagnation as a motivating factor, our paper combines a process-based model, the Catchment Systems Model, with various life cycle impact assessments (ReCiPe, Centre for Environmental Studies and Environmental Product Declaration) to propose a simple, yet effective, approach for visualising the technically feasible efficacy of various on-farm intervention strategies. As water quality was the primary focus of this study, interventions reducing acidification and eutrophication potentials of both arable and livestock farm types in the Southeast of England were considered. The study site is an area with a marked range of agricultural practices in terms of intensity. All impacts to acidification potential and eutrophication potential are reported using a functional unit of 1ha. Percentage changes relative to baseline farm types, i.e., those without any interventions, arising from various mitigation strategies, are mapped using geographical information systems. This approach demonstrates visually how a spatially-orientated life cycle assessment could provide regional-specific information for farmers and policymakers to guide the restoration of certain waterbodies. A combination of multiple mitigation strategies was found to generate the greatest reductions in pollutant losses to water, but in terms of individual interventions, optimising farm-based machinery (acidification potential) and fertiliser application strategies (eutrophication potential) were found to have notable benefits.

Internal causality in agri-food Life Cycle Assessments: Solving allocation problems based on feed energy utilization in egg production

Physical allocation in Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) should, ideally, be based on underlying causal relationships. While both cause-oriented and effect-oriented causality referred to in LCA literature are forms of external causality, internal causality addresses the actual flow of materials and inputs in a system – in other words, the real behaviour of the system under study. While a number or examples of allocation based on physical causality have been used in poultry LCAs, none of these represent the internal causality (the actual biological processes) in egg production. The current study remedies that gap by proposing such a method. Agri-food LCAs, in particular LCAs of livestock production, were used to identify existing physical allocation approaches consistent with internal causality. The most commonly used approach was found to be based on the allocation of feed energy to support the various physiological functions of the livestock species. A feed energy – Metabolizable Energy (ME) – utilization model for allocation in egg production LCAs is hence similarly proposed. Using the inventory of a previous LCA study of egg production in Canada, allocation ratios for eggs and spent hens were developed. Feed utilization models specific to each unit process were identified. The overall differences between ME utilization (∼95% eggs, 5% spent hens) and gross chemical energy content (92% eggs, 8% spent hens) for allocation were relatively small. Scenario analysis, however, showed that the allocation ratios can be considerably different if the causal relationship is interpreted differently. Differences over ∼20% was seen in a scenario which did not allocate between the co-products of each unit process in the system, but rather to the products at the end of a biological causal chain straddling multiple unit processes. The proposed approach is consistent with the interpretation of LCA as a natural sciences framework, and with the ISO 14044 multi-functionality hierarchy, because it reflects actual biological causality in egg production systems. The study results also underscore that practitioners should not only clearly justify their choice of allocation strategy, but also describe its application in detail, since small differences in methods can result in divergent outcomes.

Mapping the local impacts of water consumption with regionalized three-dimensional arrays

This study aims to develop a regionalized characterization model of water consumption that can delineate what the potential damage receptors are and where they will be. In order to improve local water resources management, assessment results with more accurate spatial information are needed. This model could be used to derive regionalized life cycle assessment (LCA) results, especially for evaluations within a country. We developed a regionalized characterization model using a watershed-affected matrix and related factors. To construct the watershed-affected matrix, a watershed-affected area (WAA) describing the geographical boundary that will be affected by insufficient water supply from the watershed was proposed as a spatial scale to evaluate the impacts of local water consumption. The model could be performed with input water consumption inventory data carrying watershed scale attributes, and with output damage results carrying local administrative scale attributes. The area of concern (AoC) concept was applied to the model so that water consumption users, such as domestic, agricultural, and industrial sectors, could be used as damage receptor to reveal societal concern about which sector will be influenced due to water depletion. This regionalized characterization model was tested on the three main watersheds in Taiwan, each representing typical, but different, water-usage features. Sector-wise WAAs of each watershed were constructed, and endpoint characterization factors (CFs) of local water consumption were calculated. The visualization results show the damage distribution of water consumption among the damage receptors, which used to be a single average value at the watershed or national scale. The model with the AoC concept is sufficiently flexible for choosing representative affected users and outcome indicators according to stakeholder preferences. Spatial differentiation and comparable results can also support LCA interpretation with detailed information. This model is expected to be further applied to the development of damage prevention strategies.

Prioritizing regionalization efforts in life cycle assessment through global sensitivity analysis: a sector meta-analysis based on ecoinvent v3

Regionalization in life cycle assessment (LCA) aims to increase the representativeness of LCA results and reduce the uncertainty due to spatial variability. It may refer to adapting processes to better account for regional technological specificities (inventory regionalization) or adding of spatial information to the elementary flows (inventory spatialization) which allow using more regionalized characterization factors. However, developing and integrating regionalization requires additional efforts for LCA practitioners and database developers that must be prioritized. We propose a stepwise methodology for LCA practitioners to prioritize data collection for regionalization based on global sensitivity analysis (GSA) using Sobol indices. It involves several GSA to select the impact categories (ICs) that require further inventory data collection (IC ranking), prioritize between inventory regionalization and inventory spatialization (LCA phase ranking), and target specific data to collect. Then we propose a method to derive sector-specific recommendations using statistical tests to prioritize inventory regionalization versus spatialization and the ICs on which to focus inventory data collection. These recommendations are meant to help LCA practitioners and database developers define their strategy for regional data collection by focusing on data that have the highest potential to reduce the uncertainty of the results. The applicability of the methodology is illustrated through three case studies using the ecoinvent v3 database and the regionalized impact methodology IMPACT World+: one on prioritizing data collection in a single biofuel product system and two meta-analyses of all product systems in two distinct economic sectors (biofuel production and land passenger transport). Recommendations for regionalization can be derived for an economic sector and appear to be different from one economic sector to another. GSA seems to be more relevant to prioritize regionalization efforts than an impact contribution analysis (ICA) approach often used to prioritize data collection in LCA. However, further improvements, such as accounting for spatial correlations and better computational times for GSA, are required to implement it in LCA. We recommend using the methodology based on GSA to efficiently prioritize regionalization efforts between ICs and between inventory regionalization and inventory spatialization. We proved that the implementation of IC ranking and LCA phase ranking is computationally feasible and therefore invite current LCA software providers to unlock this new horizon in LCA interpretation. We also invite to expand the meta-analysis to all sectors in an LCA database.

Supporting a transition towards sustainable circular economy: sensitivity analysis for the interpretation of LCA for the recovery of electric and electronic waste

PurposeThe interpretation is a fundamental phase of life cycle assessment (LCA). It ensures the robustness and the reliability of the overall study. Moving towards more circular economy requires that different waste management options are systematically scrutinized to assess the environmental impacts and benefits associated to them. The present work aims at illustrating how a sensitivity analysis could be applied to the impact assessment step supporting the interpretation of a LCA study applied to a waste management system that includes material recovering. The focus is on toxicity-related and resource-related potential impacts as they are considered among the most critical ones, which may affect the way the final benefit from material recovery is evaluated.MethodsPossible alternatives in terms of impact assessment assumptions and modelling are tested by performing a sensitivity analysis on a case study on electric and electronic waste. For the toxicity-related impact categories, first, a sensitivity analysis is performed using different sets of characterization factors for metals aiming at identifying how they are affecting the final results. Then, an analysis of the relative contribution of long-term emissions in upstream processes is carried out aiming at unveiling critical issues associated to their inclusion or exclusion. For the resource depletion impact category, a sensitivity analysis has been performed, adopting different sets of characterization factors based on existing models for minerals and metals as well as recently proposed sets accounting for critical raw materials.Results and discussionThe indicator of the ecotoxicity impact category obtained by applying the updated characterization factors is about three times higher than the corresponding obtained by the USEtox model. The long-term emission result is responsible for the major part of all the toxicity impact indicators. Moreover, for the ecotoxicity indicator, excluding the long-term emissions changes the total results from being negative into positive. The sensitivity analysis for the resource depletion impact category shows that all the models applied result in a total avoided impact. A quantitative comparison among all the results is not possible as the different models use different units of measure.ConclusionsThe application of LCA is crucial for assessing avoided impacts and uncovers potential impacts due to recycling. However, contrasting results may stem from the application of different assumptions and models for characterization. A robust interpretation of the results should be based on systematic assessment of the differences highlighted by the sensitivity, as guidance for delving into further analysis of the drivers of impacts and/or to steer ecoinnovation to reduce those impacts.

A novel framework for analyzing the green value of food supply chain based on life cycle assessment

The environmental impact is one of the major pillars of concerns when addressing the sustainability of food supply chain. In life cycle assessment of food supply chain, a particular environmental impact category from farming to distribution is aggregated. These values are widely used in determining which supply chain is performing more environmentally sound on the basis of a particular impact category. However, when different categories of environmental impacts are represented in one matrix, different impact categories can exhibit increasing and decreasing trends simultaneously for the same product. Moreover, different impact categories have different units of measurement. All of these factors make it difficult to clearly prefer one supply chain to the other. Therefore, a quantifiable indicator is desirable for each individual product which can represent all impact categories for a single product through a single index and can be easily comparable during decision making. This paper presents a new framework to compute a single index based on Life cycle assessment using vector space theory. This index can be utilized to compare the environmental sustainability among various food supply chains. The index is named as green value of a supply chain. The use of this proposed green value is explained through three case studies with different goals, scopes, system boundaries, and functional units. It is also shown that how the order of green value varies by changing the functional unit of the same product. The contribution of green value is the better interpretation of Life cycle assessment result for the purpose of decision making and is easily understandable to customers, manufacturers, policy makers, and other stakeholders.

Life Cycle Assessment Interpretation and Improvement of the Sicilian Artichokes Production

This paper presents the results obtained from the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of the production of Sicilian artichokes (Cynara scolymus) with the aim of reducing impacts, interpreting the results, suggesting possible improvements and enriching the sustainability knowledge already existing in the agro food field. Artichokes represent one of the excellent Italian agricultural products even if still not well-known and not appreciated despite their nutritional and functional quality. According to FAOSTAT (2013) data, Italy is the world leader in artichokes production, grown mainly in the central and southern regions of Italy, in particular in Sicily, Apulia and Sardinia. In particular, among all the Italian regions, Sicily, which is highly suited for this type of cultivation, is ranked first in terms of quantity produced: the reason for this lies in the excellent combination of climate and geological conformation of the soils. The study was conducted in accordance with the ISO standards 14040 and 14044 (2006), with the functional unit of 1 ha of land and, as the system boundaries being the phases of: pre-implantation preparation of the field; artichoke implantation; and harvesting. The most impacting phases are those related with the consumption of fuel and fertilizers as well as with the use of the PVC pipes for irrigation. Possible improvements could be the use of methanol instead of the naphtha (reduction of the total damage of about 13%) and the possibility of recycling the PVC pipes once the field is dismantled (furthermore reduction of the damage of about 3%).

Reflections upon 2002 and looking ahead to 2003

The Australian Life Cycle Assessment Society (ALCAS) is a professional organisation for people interested in practice, use, development and interpretation of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). It is a not-for-profit organisation with individual and corporate members from industry, government, academia and service organisation. The purpose of the society is to promote and foster the responsible development and application of LCA methodology in Australia and internationally with a view to making a positive contribution to Ecological Sustainable Development (ESD) "and to represent the Australian LCA community in the international arena. The specific objectives of ALCAS are: 1. To promote and foster the appropriate application of LCA in Australia. 2. To promote and foster the responsible development of LCA methodology in Australia with consideration of international initiatives and commensurate with local conditions. 3. To foster links with the international LCA community. 4. To organise a regular LCA Roundtable to facilitate information exchange and discussion on LCA amongst stakeholder groups. 5. To contribute to national policies, positions and approaches on LCA and its applications both nationally and internationally. 6. Increase education and awareness of LCA among stakeholders including industry, academia, government, non-government organisations, LCA practitioners, end users and the general public. 7. To develop a national competence in LCA to meet the environmental challenges both locally and internationally.