Spatially Explicit Characterization of Acidifying and Eutrophying Air Pollution in Life‐Cycle Assessment

Abstract

Simple models are often used to assess the potential impact of acidifying and eutrophying substances released during the life cycle of products. As fate, background depositions, and ecosystem sensitivity are not included in these models, environmental life‐cycle assessment of products (LCA) may produce incorrect results for these impact categories. This paper outlines the spatially explicit regional air pollution information and simulation model (RAINSLCA), which was developed for the calculation of acidification and terrestrial eutrophication potentials of ammonia (NH3) and nitrogen oxide (NOx) air emissions and acidification potentials for sulfur dioxide (SO2) air emissions for Europe and a number of European regions, taking fate,

Uncertainty and variability in environmental life-cycle assessment

“…This may, however, be an important factor in the assessment of (metal) toxicity (Huijbregts et al, 2001a), aquatic eutrophication (Huijbregts and Seppälä, 2001) and photochemical ozone formation (Andersson-Sköld and Holmberg, 2000). Furthermore, the models used in the calculation of characterisation factors may suffer from significant uncertainties in their model structure (Hertwich et al, 2000;Huijbregts et al, 2000c;Ragas et al, 1999). In the context of our study, it was not feasible to assess the impact of these model uncertainties in our uncertainty analysis.…”

“…Wellknown characterisation factors are human toxicity potentials (Hertwich et al, 1998;   Huijbregts et al, 2000a), global warming potentials (Albritton et al, , 1996, and ozone depletion potentials . Potential impacts of emissions causing climate change (Albritton et al, , 1996Solomon et al, 1995), tropospheric photochemical ozone formation (Derwent et al, , 1998Hayman and Derwent, 1997;Jenkin and Hayman, 1999), toxic impacts on humans and ecosystems (Huijbregts et al, 2000a(Huijbregts et al, , 2001a, acidification and eutrophication (Huijbregts et al, 2000c;Huijbregts and Seppälä, 2001) were assessed in the comparison. The final phase in an LCA study is the interpretation of the results from the previous three steps, to draw conclusions and to formulate recommendations for decision makers.…”

“…Finally, the choice of including or excluding 'below threshold' impact changes for acidification and terrestrial eutrophication was assessed. Two scenarios were used in the calculation of impact scores for acidification and terrestrial eutrophication: (1) the marginal impact change in all ecosystems considered and (2) the marginal impact change in ecosystems where the no-effect level is actually exceeded (Huijbregts et al, 2000c).…”

“…In this study, uncertainty due to the lack of spatial variability was assessed for terrestrial eutrophication and acidification. Region-specific characterisation factors of 44 European regions were available for NO x , NH 3 and SO 2 air emissions (Huijbregts et al, 2000c). The gain of having region-specific knowledge was analysed by separately tabulating NO x , NH 3 and SO 2 air emissions in the Netherlands and comparing the uncertainty in the model outcomes using Dutch characterisation factors with the outcomes in the model outcomes assuming that no region-specific information was available.…”

“…This bootstrap procedure was applied for every unit process independently. Acidification potentials and terrestrial eutrophication potentials, based on the marginal impact change in ecosystems where the no-effect level is actually exceeded, depend not only on the emitting region, but also on the emission year chosen (Huijbregts et al, 2000c). To take this temporal dependency into account, current air emissions, related to the construction of the building, and future emissions, occurring during the occupation and destruction of the building, were separately tabulated in the inventory analysis and multiplied with their corresponding characterisation factors.…”