Attributional and Consequential Environmental Assessment of the Shift to Lead-Free Solders (10 pp)

Ekvall, Tomas; Andrae, Anders

doi:10.1065/lca2005.05.208

Cited by 118 publications

(100 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…Indeed, abatement intensity only decreases or increases when below or above average climatic conditions are respectively considered. These presented observations are in accordance with previous work highlighting how ALCAs and CLCAs yield complementary knowledge on environmental performance (i.e., environmental impact versus abatements) [51,52]. …”

Section: Life Cycle Environmental Impact Abatements As a Consequence supporting

confidence: 81%

Implications of integrating electricity supply dynamics into life cycle assessment: A case study of renewable distributed generation

et al. 2014

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Electricity supply is frequently cited as a significant hot spot in life cycle assessment (LCA) results. Despite its importance, however, LCA research continues to overuse simplified methodologies regarding electricity supply modeling. This work aims to demonstrate the usefulness of electricity trade analysis (proposed model) for integrating the short-term dynamics of electricity supply and refining LCA results. Distributed generation using renewable energy is applied as a case study to demonstrate how electricity trade analysis provides more refined estimates when environmental impact abatements are assessed compared with the conventional (simplified) approaches in LCA. Grid-connected photovoltaic panel (3 kWp monoand poly-crystalline) and micro-wind turbine (1, 10 and 30 kW) environmental impact abatements are investigated by determining the displaced marginal electricity production on an hourly basis. The results indicate that environmental impact abatements calculated using the developed short-term time horizon approach can be significantly different (up to 200% difference) from those obtained using a simplified approach. Recommendations are provided to LCA practitioners to address this issue of differing results.

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Section: Life Cycle Environmental Impact Abatements As a Consequence supporting

confidence: 81%

Implications of integrating electricity supply dynamics into life cycle assessment: A case study of renewable distributed generation

et al. 2014

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“…Nowadays, however, most LCA practitioners choose one methodology independent of their research question. Only Ekvall and Andrae (2006) used both ALCA and CLCA to assess climate change when shifting from a tin-lead wave solder paste to a lead-free reflow solder paste. Due to lack of marginal data, average data was used besides the marginal data in the consequential LCI.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Attributional and consequential LCA of milk production

Thomassen

Dalgaard

Heijungs

et al. 2008

Int J Life Cycle Assess

288

159

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Background, aim and scope Different ways of performing a life cycle assessment (LCA) are used to assess the environmental burden of milk production. A strong connection exists between the choice between attributional LCA (ALCA) and consequential LCA (CLCA) and the choice of how to handle co-products. Insight is needed in the effect of choice on results of environmental analyses of agricultural products, such as milk. The main goal of this study was to demonstrate and compare ALCA and CLCA of an average conventional milk production system in The Netherlands. Materials and methods ALCA describes the pollution and resource flows within a chosen system attributed to the delivery of a specified amount of the functional unit. CLCA estimates how pollution and resource flows within a system change in response to a change in output of the functional unit. For an average Dutch conventional milk production system, an ALCA (mass and economic allocation) and a CLCA (system expansion) were performed. Impact categories included in the analyses were: land use, energy use, climate change, acidification and eutrophication. The comparison was based on four criteria: hotspot identification, comprehensibility, quality and availability of data. Results Total environmental burdens were lower when using CLCA compared with ALCA. Major hotspots for the different impact categories when using CLCA and ALCA were similar, but other hotspots differed in contributions, order and type. As experienced by the authors, ALCA and use of co-product allocation are difficult to comprehend for a consequential practitioner, while CLCA and system expansion are difficult to comprehend for an attributional practitioner. Literature shows concentrates used within ALCA will be more understandable for a feeding expert than the feed used within CLCA. Outcomes of CLCA are more sensitive to uncertainties compared with ALCA, due to the inclusion of market prospects. The amount of data required within CLCA is similar compared with ALCA. Discussion The main cause of these differences between ALCA and CLCA is the fact that different systems are modelled. The goal of the study or the research question to be answered defines the system under study. In general, the goal of CLCA is to assess environmental consequences of a change in demand, whereas the goal of ALCA is to assess the environmental burden of a product, assuming a status-quo situation. Nowadays, however, most LCA practitioners chose one methodology independent of their research question. Conclusions This study showed it is possible to perform both ALCA (mass and economic allocation) and CLCA (system expansion) of milk. Choices of methodology, however, resulted in differences in: total quantitative outcomes, hotspots, degree of understanding and quality. Int J Life Cycle Assess (2008) 13:339-349 DOI 10.1007 Recommendations and perspectives We recommend LCA practitioners to better distinguish between ALCA and CLCA in applied studies to reach a higher degree of transparency. Furthermore, we recommend L...

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“…For example, Paul Blowers measured LCI data for supercritical CO 2 as a replacement for ultra-pure water [12]. There has been a particular focus on solder and packaging technologies, due to the exceptional hazard of lead, a potent neurotoxin, in solder [63,5,25,36].…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Life-Cycle Assessment of Semiconductors

Boyd¹

2012

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This thesis is the first complete and transparent study of the life-cycle environmental impacts of semiconductor chips using process-level data, as well as the first analysis of the changes in these impacts over time. LCA of complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) logic, flash memory and dynamic random access memory (DRAM) are presented. CMOS logic is the most common form of digital logic used today. This thesis provides a life cycle assessment for CMOS chips over 7 technology generations with the purpose of comparing impacts by life cycle stage, examining their trends over time and evaluating their sensitivity to data uncertainty and changes in production metrics such as yield. A hybrid life cycle assessment (LCA) model is used; Wafer production, electricity generation, water supply and certain materials are represented by process LCA data, while the remaining materials are described using economic input-output (EIO) LCA methods. It is determined that, in the case of CMOS logic, life-cycle impacts in all but one category are dominated by the use phase, and impacts are most sensitive to those variables which define use phase energy demand (chip power demand, usage patterns, power supply efficiency and chip lifetime). Using the same methodology, LCA of flash memory over 5 technology generations is presented. The most recent generation of flash memory is compared with magnetic storage, using a laptop hard-drive as a functional unit, and it is determined that in most impact categories, a flash-based drive will result in fewer impacts. Life-cycle impacts of DRAM, over 6 technology generations, are presented using as the functional unit, the memory requirements a popular operating system in each year of production. The influence of the choice of functional unit on results in semiconductor LCA is examined, and it is argued that functional unit is best defined as a computational power or memory capacity required for a given function, within a set time period. The LCA impact and inventory results for these three types of semiconductor products allow more accurate assessment of the environmental ben-1 efit or costs of information technology relative to traditional products and services.

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Attributional and Consequential Environmental Assessment of the Shift to Lead-Free Solders (10 pp)

Cited by 118 publications

References 14 publications

Implications of integrating electricity supply dynamics into life cycle assessment: A case study of renewable distributed generation

Implications of integrating electricity supply dynamics into life cycle assessment: A case study of renewable distributed generation

Attributional and consequential LCA of milk production

Life-Cycle Assessment of Semiconductors

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