How green is a chemical reaction? Application of LCA to green chemistry

In the present work Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is used in order to evaluate a chemical reaction from an environmental point of view. The objective is to assess the usefulness of this methodology as an environmental tool to be applied to green chemistry. As an example, two routes of obtaining maleic anhydride are compared using LCA, to ascertain which one is the most environmentally friendly. From the results obtained in this work it can be concluded that LCA seems to be a valuable tool for the environmental assessment of a chemical reaction, because it takes into account all the life cycle stages of the process and discusses the impact of the environmental burdens inventoried according to a diversity of impact categories.     

啤酒酿造阶段生命周期清单分析

生命周期评价（LCA）可对产品生命周期各个阶段能量和物质利用以及废物排放进行分析，啤酒生命周期一般包括啤酒酿造、副产品处理、运输销售、回收处理等单元。清单分析包括原材料消耗、能源消耗和环境排放结果分析，环境排放又包括废水排放和废弃物排放。（孙悟）     

纤维板生命周期评价模式的构建

根据生命周期评价(LifeCycleAssessment,简称LCA)的原则和框架,构建了我国现有的纤维板生产系统在环境效益、经济效益和技术性能方面生命周期综合评价的模式。该模式为我国生产纤维板企业的老厂改造、新厂建设以及相关政策法规的制定提供依据和参考。本模式在评价过程中采用了层次分析方法,不仅选用了专家评分的定性给分法,而且还根据获取的数据运用定量给分的方法,使计算结果能够体现纤维板工程项目的实际情况。     

Evaluation of the economic and environmental sustainability of high pressure processing of foods

A comparative evaluation of the environmental/economic performance of High Pressure Processing (HPP) technology for food processing is made using Life Cycle Costing (LCC) and Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodologies. Thermal pasteurization (TP), in the form of indirect system (with energy recovery) and of retort process, and modified atmosphere packaging (MAP), are taken as benchmark during the evaluation, as traditional food processing technologies typically used to process orange juice (TP) and sliced Parma ham (MAP). Primary data on costs and consumption of HPP, TP and MAP plants were obtained from companies. Secondary data for LCA analysis was retrieved from the Ecoinvent 3.4 database and from available scientific literature.As a result of the assessment, HPP appears as more expensive than both TP processes, but turns out to have a lower environmental impact in almost all impact categories. Compared to MAP, HPP is less expensive and also has a lower impact in most of the impact categories, as MAP requires a significant amount of packaging materials and food gases. Industrial relevance: High pressure processing (HPP) is a well-known non-thermal technology, which since its introduction has had limited use, mainly due to the high cost of the electricity required for the process. Nowadays, however, new technologies in the food processing and new food product applications could make it more widely used. To correctly evaluate whether HPP technology is actually cost-effective and has low impact on the environment, detailed economic and environmental analyses have been carried out in this paper. Results are expected to enhance the use of HPP technology in industry.     

Use of life cycle assessments to evaluate the environmental footprint of contaminated sediment remediation

Ecological and human risks often drive the selection of remedial alternatives for contaminated sediments. Traditional human and ecological risk assessment (HERA) includes assessing risk for benthic organisms and aquatic fauna associated with exposure to contaminated sediments before and after remediation as well as risk for human exposure but does not consider the environmental footprint associated with implementing remedial alternatives. Assessment of environmental effects over the whole life cycle (i.e., Life Cycle Assessment, LCA) could complement HERA and help in selecting the most appropriate sediment management alternative. Even though LCA has been developed and applied in multiple environmental management cases, applications to contaminated sediments and marine ecosystems are in general less frequent. This paper implements LCA methodology for the case of the polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and -furans (PCDD/F)-contaminated Grenland fjord in Norway. LCA was applied to investigate the environmental footprint of different active and passive thin-layer capping alternatives as compared to natural recovery. The results showed that capping was preferable to natural recovery when analysis is limited to effects related to the site contamination. Incorporation of impacts related to the use of resources and energy during the implementation of a thin layer cap increase the environmental footprint by over 1 order of magnitude, making capping inferior to the natural recovery alternative. Use of biomass-derived activated carbon, where carbon dioxide is sequestered during the production process, reduces the overall environmental impact to that of natural recovery. The results from this study show that LCA may be a valuable tool for assessing the environmental footprint of sediment remediation projects and for sustainable sediment management.     

Development of the method and U.S. normalization database for Life Cycle Impact Assessment and sustainability metrics

Normalization is an optional step within Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA) that may be used to assist in the interpretation of life cycle inventory data as well as life cycle impact assessment results. Normalization transforms the magnitude of LCI and LCIA results into relative contribution by substance and life cycle impact category. Normalization thus can significantly influence LCA-based decisions when tradeoffs exist. The U. S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has developed a normalization database based on the spatial scale of the 48 continental U.S. states, Hawaii, Alaska, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico with a one-year reference time frame. Data within the normalization database were compiled based on the impact methodologies and lists of stressors used in TRACI-the EPA's Tool for the Reduction and Assessment of Chemical and other environmental Impacts. The new normalization database published within this article may be used for LCIA case studies within the United States, and can be used to assist in the further development of a global normalization database. The underlying data analyzed for the development of this database are included to allow the development of normalization data consistent with other impact assessment methodologies as well.     

Life cycle assessment for sustainable metropolitan water systems planning

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is useful as an information tool for the examination of alternative future scenarios for strategic planning. Developing a life cycle assessment for a large water and wastewater system involves making methodological decisions about the level of detail which is retained through different stages of the process. In this article we discuss a methodology tailored to strategic planning needs which retains a high degree of model segmentation in order to enhance modeling of a large, complex system. This is illustrated by a case study of Sydney Water, which is Australia's largest water service provider. A prospective LCA was carried out to examine the potential environmental impacts of Sydney Water's total operations in the year 2021. To our knowledge this is the first study to create an LCA model of an integrated water and wastewater system with this degree of complexity. A "base case" system model was constructed to represent current operating assets as augmented and upgraded to 2021. The base case results provided a basis for the comparison of alternative future scenarios and for conclusions to be drawn regarding potential environmental improvements. The scenarios can be roughly classified in two categories: (1) options which improve the environmental performance across all impact categories and (2) options which improve one indicator and worsen others. Overall environmental improvements are achieved in all categories by the scenarios examining increased demand management, energy efficiency, energy generation, and additional energy recovery from biosolids. The scenarios which examined desalination of seawater and the upgrades of major coastal sewage treatment plants to secondary and tertiary treatment produced an improvement in one environmental indicator but deteriorations in all the other impact categories, indicating the environmental tradeoffs within the system. The desalination scenario produced a significant increase in greenhouse gas emissions due to coal-fired electricity generation for a small increase in water supply. Assessment of a greenfield scenario incorporating water demand management, on-site treatment, local irrigation, and centralized biosolids treatment indicates significant environmental improvements are possible relative to the assessment of a conventional system of corresponding scale.     

Life Cycle Assessment (ISO 14040) Implementation in Foods of Animal and Plant Origin: Review

The importance of environmental protection has been recently upgraded due to the continuously increasing environmental pollution load. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), wellknown as ISO 14040, has been repeatedly shown to be a useful and powerful tool for assessing the environmental performance of industrial processes, both in the European and American continents as well as in many Asian countries (such as Japan and China). To the best of our knowledge, almost no information is provided in relation to LCA implementation in Africa apart from an article related to Egypt. Although food industries are not considered to be among the most heavily polluting ones, for some like olive oil, wine, dairy, and meat processing, their impact on the environment is a heavy burden. The introduction of LCA aimed at identifying both inputs and outputs to find out which are the most detrimental to the environment in terms of water/energy consumption and solid/liquid and gas releases. In this review, a thorough coverage of literature was made in an attempt to compare the implementation of LCA to a variety of products of both plant and animal origin. It was concluded that there is a high number of subsystems suggested for the same product, thereby, occasionally leading to confusion. An idea toward solving the problem is to proceed to some sort of standardization by means of several generic case studies of LCA implementation, similarly to what had happened in the case of Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) implementation in the United States, Canada, Australia, United Kingdom, and other countries.     

Beef production in balance: considerations for life cycle analyses

Life Cycle Assessments (LCA) are useful tools to analyze a product's "carbon footprint" (e.g., the net greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions expressed as standardized carbon dioxide equivalents per unit of product) considering all phases of the production chain. For beef, an LCA would include the GHG emissions from feed production, from the enteric fermentation of the cattle, from the cattle's waste, and from processing and transportation. Identifying the scope and scale of the LCA is critical and key to preventing inappropriate applications of the analysis (e.g., applying a global LCA for beef to the regional or national scale). Ideally, a LCA can integrate the complex biogeochemical processes responsible for GHG emissions and the disparate animal and agricultural management techniques used be different phases of the beef production chain (e.g., feedlot vs. cow-calf) and different production systems (e.g., conventional vs. organic).     

生命周期评价在造纸废水处理中的应用

生命周期评价LCA（Life Cycle Assessment）可以作为评价产品生产全过程的有效手段,又可以作为一种环境管理工具。文章介绍了生命周期评价的概念、技术框架,并以具体实例讨论了造纸废水的生命周期评价分析,为造纸企业清洁生产提供指导。     

Input-dependent life-cycle inventory model of industrial wastewater-treatment processes in the chemical sector

Industrial wastewater-treatment systems need to ensure a high level of protection for the environment as a whole. Life-cycle assessment (LCA) comprehensively evaluates the environmental impacts of complex treatment systems, taking into account impacts from auxiliaries and energy consumption as well as emissions. However, the application of LCA is limited by a scarcity of wastewater-specific life-cycle inventory (LCI) data. This study presents a modular gate-to-gate inventory model for industrial wastewater purification in the chemical and related sectors. It enables the calculation of inventory parameters as a function of the wastewater composition and the technologies applied. Forthis purpose, data on energy and auxiliaries' consumption, wastewater composition, and process parameters was collected from chemical industry. On this basis, causal relationships between wastewater input, emissions, and technical inputs were identified. These causal relationships were translated into a generic inventory model. Generic and site-specific data ranges for LCI parameters are provided for the following processes: mechanical-biological treatment, high-pressure wet-air oxidation, nanofiltration, and extraction. The input- and technology-dependent process inventories help to bridge data gaps where primary data are not available. Thus, they substantially help to perform an environmental assessment of industrial wastewater purification in the chemical and associated industries, which may be used, for instance, for technology choices.     

棉纺织品的生命周期清单分析

运用生命周期评价的思想，对纯棉机织物进行了生命周期清单分析，旨在识别和评价棉纺织品的主要环境负载，为纺织品环境问题的解决和推进生命周期评价在纺织领域的应用提供有益参考。     

Toward meaningful end points of biodiversity in life cycle assessment

Halting current rates of biodiversity loss will be a defining challenge of the 21st century. To assess the effectiveness of strategies to achieve this goal, indicators and tools are required that monitor the driving forces of biodiversity loss, the changing state of biodiversity, and evaluate the effectiveness of policy responses. Here, we review the use of indicators and approaches to model biodiversity loss in Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), a methodology used to evaluate the cradle-to-grave environmental impacts of products. We find serious conceptual shortcomings in the way models are constructed, with scale considerations largely absent. Further, there is a disproportionate focus on indicators that reflect changes in compositional aspects of biodiversity, mainly changes in species richness. Functional and structural attributes of biodiversity are largely neglected. Taxonomic and geographic coverage remains problematic, with the majority of models restricted to one or a few taxonomic groups and geographic regions. On a more general level, three of the five drivers of biodiversity loss as identified by the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment are represented in current impact categories (habitat change, climate change and pollution), while two are missing (invasive species and overexploitation). However, methods across all drivers can be greatly improved. We discuss these issues and make recommendations for future research to better reflect biodiversity loss in LCA.     

Holz und Holzprodukte in vergleichenden Ökobilanzen

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) aspire to quantify the potential environmental impacts of a product system throughout its life cycle. The technique is used to identify and realize opportunities to improve the environmental aspects of processes, and to compare between products with equivalent function and performance in order to select the environmentally best ones. Especially when the intended application is a comparative assertion, it is inevitable that the key features and methodological framework currently discussed in ISO be accepted and applied to fulfill the specific requirements of transparency, completeness, reproducibility, reliability, and consistency. Because construction affects our environment to a significant extent, building materials and products have been evaluated in LCA studies for several years. In this context, wood and timber based products do have an exceptional position, in that they are produced from a resource which itself is an integral part of the forest ecosystem. It has not yet been possible to quantify the environmental benefits of sustainable forestry to such an extent that they can be used in LCA to underline the environmental benefits of wood with CO₂-storage being the exception to the rule. Nevertheless, the examples selected from applications in building construction and power supply lines manifest that timber derived products have an excellent environmental position when compared to alternative products. This is mainly due to the sparing use of fossile energy resources, low contribution to the greenhouse effect, and small waste volume.     

Alternative "global warming" metrics in life cycle assessment: a case study with existing transportation data

The Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) impact category "global warming" compares emissions of long-lived greenhouse gases (LLGHGs) using Global Warming Potential (GWP) with a 100-year time-horizon as specified in the Kyoto Protocol. Two weaknesses of this approach are (1) the exclusion of short-lived climate forcers (SLCFs) and biophysical factors despite their established importance, and (2) the use of a particular emission metric (GWP) with a choice of specific time-horizons (20, 100, and 500 years). The GWP and the three time-horizons were based on an illustrative example with value judgments and vague interpretations. Here we illustrate, using LCA data of the transportation sector, the importance of SLCFs relative to LLGHGs, different emission metrics, and different treatments of time. We find that both the inclusion of SLCFs and the choice of emission metric can alter results and thereby change mitigation priorities. The explicit inclusion of time, both for emissions and impacts, can remove value-laden assumptions and provide additional information for impact assessments. We believe that our results show that a debate is needed in the LCA community on the impact category "global warming" covering which emissions to include, the emission metric(s) to use, and the treatment of time.     

涤纶纺织品的碳足迹评估

根据BS EN ISO 14040:2006和PAS 2050:2008-商品和服务在生命周期内的温室气体排放评价规范,以及PAS 2050:2008规范使用指南,以100 kg涤纶长丝织物为功能单位,建立该功能单位从原油开采到完成印染加工这一系统边界的过程图;应用GaBi Education 4 LCA软件计算规定的系统边界内的碳足迹.数据分析表明,生产100 kg涤纶织物的碳排放量为2 570.10 kg CO2e,染整加工过程占总碳排放量的64.5％.     

啤酒碳足迹及计算案例专题论述

啤酒生产周期长、能耗高,对啤酒开展碳足迹研究十分必要。本文采用生命周期评价（Life Cycle Assessment,LeA）的方法,结合沈阳工厂8°P雪花纯生啤酒碳足迹的计算案例,对国内外啤酒生产从原料、包装物、工厂生产等各个环节的碳足迹、相关碳排放因子及管理进行了综述和比较。旨在为国内啤酒碳足迹计算模型的建立奠定基础,确定节能减“碳”关键控制点,促进国内啤酒厂的可持续发展。     

Life cycle investigation of CO2 recovery and sequestration

The Life Cycle Assessment of four CO2 recoverytechnologies, combined with nine CO2 sequestration systems, serves to expand the debate of CO2 mitigation methods beyond a single issue-prevention of global warming-to a wider range of environmental concerns: resource depletion, acidic and toxic gases, wastes, etc, so that the overall, and unexpected, environmental impacts may be revealed.