Application of the impact pathway analysis in the context of LCA

Krewitt, Wolfram; Mayerhofer, Petra; Trukenmüller, Alfred; Friedrich, Rainer

doi:10.1007/bf02978495

Cited by 43 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 6 publications

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“…The effect factor (E) may be a simple measure of impact, such as the inverse of a predicted no effect concentration (1/PNEC) for toxic effects towards ecosystems (Guinée and Heijungs, 1993). It may also be derived from a detailed description of the dose-response curve (Krewitt et al, 1998;Goedkoop and Spriensma, 1999). Commonly applied sets of characterisation factors are global warming potentials (Albritton et al, 1996), ozone depletion potentials and photochemical ozone creation potentials (Derwent et al, 1998).…”

Section: § 11 Environmental Life Cycle Assessmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Various models may be used to include fate and effects in the calculation of characterisation factors (Hertwich et al, 2001;Potting et al, 2001;Hauschild and Pennington, 2001;Krewitt et al, 2001). Fate factors may be calculated with multi-media fate box models, such as Simplebox (Brandes et al, 1996), or spatially explicit models, such as EcoSense (Krewitt et al, 1998). The effect factor (E) may be a simple measure of impact, such as the inverse of a predicted no effect concentration (1/PNEC) for toxic effects towards ecosystems (Guinée and Heijungs, 1993).…”

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Uncertainty and variability in environmental life-cycle assessment

Huijbregts

2002

Int J LCA

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General introductionIncreased rates of resource depletion, land use, solid waste generation and emissions of pollutants became issues of broad public concern in the beginning of the seventies (Meadows et al., 1972). Unfortunately, most of these problems are still with us today, and some of them have increased substantially (World Resources Institute, 1996). One way to decrease the environmental pressure of human activities is the environmentally improvement of production processes (Reijnders, 1996). In this respect, an important question to be answered is 'how exactly can we measure the environmentally improvement of production processes?' Environmental life-cycle assessment (LCA) aims to answer that question. The first section of this chapter provides an overview of the LCA framework. Although the framework itself is well-established, the application of the framework is in many aspects problematic. A brief overview of the problems associated with the actual implementation of the framework is described in second paragraph. Finally, the aim and the structure of the present thesis is outlined in the third paragraph. § 1.1 Environmental life cycle assessment Environmental life cycle assessment (LCA) is a tool for the assessment of the environmental impact of product systems (Heijungs et al. 1992). It considers the full life cycle of a product from resource extraction to waste disposal. LCA is generally divided into four phases: goal and scope definition, inventory analysis, impact assessment, and interpretation (Figure 1.1; ISO, 1997a).In the goal and scope definition, the aim and the subject of an LCA study are determined and a 'functional unit' is defined. An example of a functional unit is 'the consumption of 100 kg apples' with, for instance, the aim to compare the environmental impacts of different agricultural production processes of apples. In the inventory analysis, for each of the product systems considered data are gathered for all the relevant processes involved in the life cycle. A product system can be considered as a combination of processes needed for the functioning of a product or service. The outcome of the inventory analysis is a list of all extractions of resources and emissions of substances caused by the functional unit for every product system considered, generally disregarding place and time of the extractions and releases. The matrix method can be used to perform the inventory analysis (Heijungs, 1996(Heijungs, , 1997 where i is the vector of environmental interventions, H is the environmental intervention matrix, representing the extractions of resources and emissions of substances per unit process, G is the technology matrix representing the inter-process flows needed for the functioning of the product system, and u is the external supply vector, related to the functional unit. Life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) aims to improve the understanding of the inventory result. Firstly, it is determined which extractions and emissions contribute to which impact categories. An impact category can...

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Section: § 11 Environmental Life Cycle Assessmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

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confidence: 99%

Uncertainty and variability in environmental life-cycle assessment

Huijbregts

2002

Int J LCA

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“…Impact pathways [72], between the life cycle inventory (e.g., costs) and the AoP should be developed for LCA-type LCC and need to be coordinated with the further development of the AoP and impact pathways for LCA and SLCA to avoid overlap and double counting.…”

Section: Outlook-lcc In a Sustainability Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

Life Cycle Costing in Sustainability Assessment—A Case Study of Remanufactured Alternators

et al. 2011

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Sustainability is on the international agenda, and is a driver for industry in international competition. Sustainability encompasses the three pillars: environment, society and economy. To prevent shifting of burden, the whole life cycle needs to be taken into account. For the environmental dimension of sustainability, life cycle assessment (LCA) has been practiced for a while and is a standardized method. A life cycle approach for the social and economic pillars of sustainability needs to be further developed. This paper investigates the application of life cycle costing (LCC) as part of a wider sustainability assessment where also social life cycle assessment (SLCA) and LCA are combined. LCA-type LCC is applied on a case study of remanufactured alternators. Remanufacturing of automobile parts is a fast growing important business with large potential for cost and resource savings. Three design alternatives for the alternator and three locations for the remanufacturing plant are evaluated. The remanufacturer perspective and the user perspective are investigated. The results for the LCA-type LCC show that the largest cost for the remanufacturer is the new parts replacing old warn parts. However, the user cost, and therein especially, cost for fuel used for the alternator's power production dominates and should be the focus for further improvement. In conducting the case study, it was revealed that the connection between the LCA-type LCC results and the economic dimension of sustainability needs to be further investigated and defined. For this purpose, areas of protection for life cycle sustainability assessment and LCA-type LCC in particular need further development.

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“…A meta-analysis of valuation studies from Europe and North America undertaken in ExternE suggests a mean VSL of 3.1 Mio Euro at a 3% discount rate, derived from accident studies according to the ExternE project (Mayerhofer et al, 1998).…”

Section: Externalitiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Environmental damage estimations in industrial process chains

Sonnemann

2004

Int. J. LCA

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Application of the impact pathway analysis in the context of LCA

Cited by 43 publications

References 6 publications

Uncertainty and variability in environmental life-cycle assessment

Uncertainty and variability in environmental life-cycle assessment

Life Cycle Costing in Sustainability Assessment—A Case Study of Remanufactured Alternators

Environmental damage estimations in industrial process chains

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