Life Cycle Inventory Modeling in Practice

Sauer, Beverly

doi:10.1002/9781118528372.ch3

Cited by 6 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 3 publications

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“…An LCA consists of four steps: goal & scope definition, inventory analysis, impact assessment and interpretation (Mogensen et al, 2009). The goal and scope definition aims to define the studied supply chain, the functional unit, the system boundaries, the impact indicators and applied methods (Sauer, 2012). The life cycle inventory contains all the data related to the used resources and emissions to the environment that occur during the life cycle of a product.…”

Section: B Life Cycle Assessment and Environmental Impact Indicatorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The life cycle inventory contains all the data related to the used resources and emissions to the environment that occur during the life cycle of a product. The data are quantified in relation to the defined functional unit (Finnveden et al, 2009), for example one kilogram of end product (Sauer, 2012). The impact assessment aims to evaluate the environmental impact of the resources and emissions that are reported in the inventory analysis (Margni & Curran, 2012).…”

Section: B Life Cycle Assessment and Environmental Impact Indicatorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A model for composing meat replacers: Reducing the environmental impact of our food consumption pattern while retaining its nutritional value

Mierlo

Rohmer

Gerdessen

2017

Journal of Cleaner Production

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Current food consumption patterns have a substantial impact on our environment and are thus considered unsustainable. In the context of global warming and a rising world population, shifting from meat towards more plant-based products holds potential to reduce the environmental impact of our food consumption. Replacing meat in the diet, however, requires compensation through other products that are able to provide the important nutrients present in meat (protein, iron, zinc and vitamin B12). This study applies linear programming techniques with the aim to compose meat replacers, with equivalent nutritional value to meat (using chicken and beef as a reference), minimizing the environmental impact with regards to climate change, land use, water use and fossil fuel depletion. A life cycle approach was used to quantify the environmental impacts. Particular attention was given to protein quality and the relative quantities of essential amino acids. The results show that soy is a preferred ingredient due to its favorable amino acid profile. Among the different scenarios investigated, the vegan replacers, with reductions of up to 87%, have the largest potential for impact reduction for all indicators except water use. Insect-based replacers have the largest potential for water use reduction (up to 47%), but show relatively high fossil fuel depletion values. The smallest improvement potential is observed with regards to fossil fuel depletion, with some values even 45% higher than the values for meat. Furthermore, it is not possible to obtain equivalent nutritional values to beef without using fortifications.

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Section: B Life Cycle Assessment and Environmental Impact Indicatorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: B Life Cycle Assessment and Environmental Impact Indicatorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A model for composing meat replacers: Reducing the environmental impact of our food consumption pattern while retaining its nutritional value

Mierlo

Rohmer

Gerdessen

2017

Journal of Cleaner Production

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“…23 In cradle-to-gate studies, with the aim to assess the environmental impacts of a single product, the functional unit might be set equal to a physical output, such as mass. 24 Although a mass-based functional unit does not reflect material properties or functions, it can still be relevant in studies with the aim to conduct approximate comparisons of materials' environmental impacts if these are used in similar applications, particularly for novel materials. 25 A mass-based functional unit of 1 g nanodiamonds (4−5 nm primary particles) was selected for detonation synthesis.…”

Section: ■ Materials and Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The functional unit constitutes a quantitative reference to which the environmental impacts are related and should reflect the function of the product assessed . In cradle-to-gate studies, with the aim to assess the environmental impacts of a single product, the functional unit might be set equal to a physical output, such as mass . Although a mass-based functional unit does not reflect material properties or functions, it can still be relevant in studies with the aim to conduct approximate comparisons of materials’ environmental impacts if these are used in similar applications, particularly for novel materials .…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Life Cycle Assessment of Synthetic Nanodiamond and Diamond Film Production

Furberg,

Arvidsson

2023

ACS Sustainable Chem. Eng.

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Diamond possesses extraordinary properties, including extreme hardness, thermal conductivity, and mechanical strength. Global industrial diamond production is dominated by synthetic diamond, with important commercial applications in hard coatings and semiconductors. However, the life cycle impacts of synthetic diamond materials are largely unknown. The main aim of this study is to conduct the first detailed life cycle assessments of the typical production routes for nanodiamond and diamond film, which are detonation synthesis and microwave chemical vapor deposition, respectively. The functional units were set to 1 g nanodiamond and 1 cm 2 diamond film. A limited number of inputs dominate the assessed impacts: explosives and cooling water for nanodiamond production, and electricity and substrate for diamond film production. Diamond film manufacturers can reduce their global warming, freshwater eutrophication, and terrestrial acidification impacts by 62−71% by sourcing wind or solar instead of global average electricity. However, this comes at the expense of increased mineral resource scarcity impacts at 57−73%. A comparison between nanodiamond and synthetic diamond grit shows that the grit's global warming impact is about 5 times higher, suggesting that nanodiamond is environmentally preferable. The ready-to-use unitprocess data from this study can be applied in future studies of products containing these materials.

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“…elementary flow level) to provide as much information (e.g. location, time period, emission to air and water) as possible for a temporal and spatial impact assessment [19]. Ideally, life cycle inventory accounts for all material and energy flows used in the system but realistically not all data can be provided.…”

Section: Life Cycle Assessment Of Manufacturing Systemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Combining Life Cycle Assessment and Manufacturing System Simulation: Evaluating Dynamic Impacts from Renewable Energy Supply on Product-Specific Environmental Footprints

Rödger

Beier

Schönemann

et al. 2020

Int. J. of Precis. Eng. and Manuf.-Green Tech.

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The eco-efficiency of actual production processes is still one dominating research area in engineering. However, neglecting the environmental impacts of production equipment, technical building services and energy supply might lead to suboptimization or burden-shifting and thus reduced effectiveness. As an established method used in sustainability management, Life Cycle Assessment aims at calculating the environmental impacts from all life cycle stages of a product or system. In order to cope with shortcomings of the static character of life cycle models and data gaps this approach combines Life Cycle Assessment with manufacturing system simulation. Therefore, the two life cycles of product and production system are merged to assess environmental sustainability on product level. Manufacturing simulation covers the production system and Life Cycle Assessment is needed to relate the results to the final product. This combined approach highlights the influences from dynamic effects in manufacturing systems on resulting life cycle impact from both product and production system. Furthermore, the importance of considering indirect peripheral equipment and its effects on the manufacturing system operation in terms of output and energy demands is underlined. The environmental flows are converted into impacts for the five recommended environmental impact categories. Thus, it can be demonstrate that Life Cycle Assessment can enhance the process simulation and help identify hot-spots along the life cycle. The combined methodology is applied for analysing a case study in fourteen scenarios for the integration of volatile energy sources into energy flexible manufacturing control.

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Life Cycle Inventory Modeling in Practice

Cited by 6 publications

References 3 publications

A model for composing meat replacers: Reducing the environmental impact of our food consumption pattern while retaining its nutritional value

A model for composing meat replacers: Reducing the environmental impact of our food consumption pattern while retaining its nutritional value

Life Cycle Assessment of Synthetic Nanodiamond and Diamond Film Production

Combining Life Cycle Assessment and Manufacturing System Simulation: Evaluating Dynamic Impacts from Renewable Energy Supply on Product-Specific Environmental Footprints

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