Introduction to LCA

Why LCA
LCA Introduction
• One of several environmental management techniques (e.g., risk assessment, environmental
performance evaluation, environmental auditing, and environmental impact assessment).
• Appropriateness differ in variety of situations. LCA typically does not address the economic or (Social)
aspects of a product.
• LCA quantify the environmental impacts of a product or service, such as greenhouse gas
emissions, water pollution, land use, toxins, and more.
• Impacts measured for any or all phases of a product’s lifecycle, including manufacturing, distribution, use,
and disposal.
• The depth and breadth of analysis can vary greatly; take care to match the sophistication of the analysis to
its intended purpose.
• A rough assessment can take less than an hour, while a full assessment performed to international
standards may take hundreds of hours.
• Many methodologies and software tools available for LCA, and these should be matched to
the intended purpose.
 Life Cycle Assessment
Life-cycle assessment (LCA) process of evaluating the effects that a product has on the environment
over the entire period of its life thereby increasing resource-use efficiency and decreasing liabilities.
Used to study the environmental impact of either a product or the function of the product designed to
perform.
Commonly referred to as a "cradle-to-grave" analysis.

LCA's key elements are:-

(1) Identify and quantify the environmental loads involved; e.g. the energy and raw materials
consumed, the emissions, and wastes generated.
(2) Evaluate the potential environmental impacts of these loads.
(3) Assess the options available for reducing these environmental impacts.
Overview of LCA
LCA Defined in ISO Standards
A technique for assessing the environmental aspects and potential impacts
associated with a product, by
• Inventorization of relevant inputs and outputs of a product system ;
• Evaluating the potential environmental impacts associated with inputs and
outputs ;
• Interpreting the results of the inventory analysis and impact assessment
phases in relation to the objectives of the study.
Studies of the environmental aspects and potential impacts throughout a
product’s life (i.e. cradler to- grave) - from raw material acquisition through
production, use and disposal.
The general categories of environmental impacts include resource use,
human health, and ecological consequences.
 Life Cycle Assessment
Goals/Objectives Aims

Pollution Energy
Greening the efficiency Marketing,
Comparing prevention
Product supply chain improvement public
alternatives opportunity
improvement/ regulations,
benchmarking regulatory
compliances

Resource
Planning for
conservation
recycling
opportunities
Users and LCA
Industry
• LCAs as a way of identifying environmental hot spots and to develop
and advertise their environmental management strategies.
• LCA studies often conducted by industry associations and
environmental concepts and tools research organizations.
International Copper Association; International Lead and Zinc
Research Organization; International Iron and Steel Institute;
International Aluminum Institute and the Nickel Development
Institute, CII (India).
Users and LCA
Government
• Governments use LCA for data collection and developing more
effective environmental policies related to materials and products.

Universities/Institutions
• Researching and developing LCA methodology and data.
 ISO Codes
Four standards:
• Principal and framework (ISO 14040) an introduction to LCA and contains
applicable definitions and background information,
• Goal and scope (ISO 14041)
• Life cycle impact analysis (ISO 14042)
• Life cycle interpretation (ISO 14043).
In 2006 besides ISO 14040 the other three were gathered and included in ISO
14044 without making any change. (Bjorn et al. 2018).
LCA- Principals and Framework
 Life Cycle Assessment Framework
• Define aim, functional

• Results analysis
1 unit and system
boundary for study.
• Representation • All the inclusion and
exclusion.
Life Cycle 2
4 Analysis

• Method: ReCiPi 2016,

• Input and output of
IPCC 2021, CML-IA
material and energy
• Details from inventory
analysis serve for
3 flows.
• Especially interaction
impact assessment.
with environment.
Goals and Scope
• Clearly defined goal and scope of an LCA study consistent with the intended
application (Iterative Process).
• The goal of an LCA study clearly state
• Intended application
• Purpose
• Intended audience
• Comparative analysis
 Scope of the study
Following items considered and clearly described:
- Product system to be studied;
- Functions of the product system, or systems ;
- Functional unit ;
- Product system boundaries ;
- Allocation procedures;
- LCIA methodology and types of impacts, and subsequent interpretation to be used ;
- Data requirements ;
- Assumptions ;
- Value choices and optional elements;
- Limitations ;
- Data quality requirements ;
- Type of critical review, if any ;
- Type and format of the report required for the study.
Function and functional unit
• Product’s function needed to describe a product.
• Demands on the product must be defined.
• During comparison of different products, different functionalities of each of
the products documented exactly.
• Difficult to compare products with large variety of functions with
respect to the full range of functionalities.
• Example: Different mobiles have different functionality besides
common functions. Important to consider differences.
Functional Unit
• Quantified definition of the function of a product, defined in the first phase of a
life-cycle assessment study – that of goal and scope definition.
• The choice of functional unit influences an LCA’s results and care needed when
comparing the results of LCAs with different functional units. Examples:
1. Functional unit of an aluminum can, defined as packaging 330ml of beverage,
protecting it from UV radiation and oxidation and keeping in the carbonic acid for at
least half a year, ability to drink the beverages directly out of the packaging
2. The functional unit set to be the packaging for 1000 liters of milk in order to compare
glass bottles and cartons are used for milk packaging.
3. Food-related functional units 1 kg of beef, 100 calories of food, or 1 ha of land.
• Defining the functional unit difficult because the performance of products not
always easy to describe or isolate.
• Part of defining a functional unit - definition of a reference flow.
• Reference flow - measure of product components and materials needed to
fulfill the function, as defined by the functional unit.
• All data collected during the inventory phase related to the reference flow.
Adopted from TAPPI PAPERCON MAY 2-5, 2010
Adopted from TAPPI PAPERCON MAY 2-5, 2010
 System Boundary
• The system boundary defines which processes be included in, or excluded from, the system; i.e.
the LCA.
• Process flow diagram showing the processes and their relationships used to describe the system
• A system’s boundaries defined by cut-off criteria-parts and materials included in and excluded
from the product system.
• Eg: production process contributing less than 5% to the product’s overall weight can be
excluded; Exclusion based on the number of processing steps in a process chain or the
estimated contribution of a process to the overall environmental impact of the system.
• Combination of different cut-off criteria used in order to define the system boundaries properly.
Input exclusion
• Mass cut-off criteria according to,
• Environmental Significance cut off
• Energy cut off
• For comparative assertions and public study final sensitivity analysis of the inputs and outputs
data shall include the mass, energy and environmental significance criteria.
Process flow diagram
Elementary flow
material or energy entering
the system, drawn from the
environment without
previous human
transformation, or material
or energy leaving the
system, released into
the environment without
subsequent human
transformation
System Boundary Option
Example: System boundary of Paperboard Manufacturing, Consumption, and Recycling Processes

Wood/Biomass as raw
Pulping/ Pulp material
bleach-

Emissions
Manufacturing plant Paperboard

Energy
Packaging
Transportation

Water
Folding box
paperboard

Use Waste

Recycle

Life Cycle Assessment of Paperboard, Pratibha Goyal Degree Thesis Material Processing Technology 2021
 Fuel (Coal, Biomass, LPG, Emission Boiler Ash
PNG
Emission due to Machine in
collection/Cutting of raw
Wood/Biomass/Recycled material
Chemical production
Fiber Depletion of the forest cover
(This can be compensated if
similar amount of plantation
done
Transportation of Raw

Utility (Boiler)

Emission due to Transportation of Steam

material

Water
raw material

Electricity Electricity
Water Electricity
Electricity WW

Bleaching and Final Final

Raw Material Pulping Used in the market
Board production Product
Preparation Raw Material
Black Liquor

Steam

Electricity
Gas Production
Electricity WW
WW Chemical Recovery
Chemical
Chemical WW treatment

Emission
Emission Sludge
LCIA methodology and types of impacts
• To determine which impact categories, category indicators and
characterization models be included within the LCA study.
• Impact categories, category indicators and characterization models be
selected consistent with the goal.
Inventory Analysis- Data Collection and
calculations

• Compilation and quantification of inputs and outputs for a given

product system throughout its life cycle or for single processes.
• The inventory analysis includes data collection and the compilation of
the data in a Life Cycle Inventory (LCI) table.
• The process of conducting an LCI iterative.
• As data collected more learning about system, data requirements or
limitations may be redefined or a change in the data collection
Source and types of data
• Data collection from
• Production sites associated with the unit processes within the system boundary,
• calculated from other sources.
• Data may be a mixture of measured, calculated or estimated data.
• Inputs -use of mineral resources (e.g. metal s from ores or recycling, services
like transportation or energy supply, and use of ancillary materials like
lubricants or fertilizers).
• As part of emissions to air, emissions of carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide,
sulfur oxides, nitrogen oxides, etc.may be separately identified.
• Emissions to air, and discharges to water and soil, often represent releases
from point or diffuse sources, after passing through pollution control devices.
• In addition, data representing noise and vibration, land use, radiation, odour
and waste heat may be collected.
Data Quality Requirements
• Data quality is a trade off between feasibility and completeness.
• The quality of a dataset can only be assessed if the characteristics of
the data are sufficiently documented.
• Data quality does, therefore, correspond to the documentation
quality.
Issues for the data quality
• Data acquisition: Is the data measured, calculated or estimated? How
much of the data required is primary data (in %) and how much data is
taken from literature and databases (secondary data)?
• Time-reference: When was this data obtained and have there been any
major changes since the data collection that might affect the results?
• Geographical reference: For what country or region is this data relevant?
• Technology (Best Available Technology) – Is the secondary data from
literature or databases representative for state-of-the-art-technology or for
older technology?
• Precision: Is the data a precise representation of the system?
• Completeness: Data gaps and strategy to fill?
• Representative, consistence, reproducible
Data Collection - Classifications
• Most work intensive and time consuming of all the phases in an LCA.
• Includes collecting quantitative and qualitative data for every unit process
in the system.
• The data for each unit process can be classified as follows:
• energy inputs
• raw material inputs
• ancillary inputs
• other physical inputs
• products
• co-products
• wastes
• emissions to air, water and soil
• other environmental aspects
Allocation and System Expansion

• All inputs and outputs of the process to be allocated to the different

products in case of multi product processes
• Allocation is the partitioning and relating of inputs and outputs of a
process to the relevant products and byproducts.
• Allocation by Mass
• Allocation by Heating Value: often used for production processes of fuels.
• Allocation by Market Value (non Physical)
• Allocation by Other Rules: Including exergy, substance content, etc.
• Ways to avoid allocation, substitution and system expansion.
Iterative
Process
990 MJ
Pre-Steps to calculation of the LCI
• Data Validation - Validating the collected data is a continuous
process. This can be done with mass or energy balances as well as
with a comparison to similar data.
• Relating Data to Unit Processes - The data must be related to unit
processes
• Relating Data to Functional Unit - The data must be related to the
functional unit.
LCIA
• The Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA) identifies and evaluates the
amount and significance of the potential environmental impacts arising
from the LCI.
• The inputs and outputs first assigned to impact categories and their
potential impacts quantified according to characterization factors.
• Global warming
• Human toxicity
• Resource depletion
• Ecotoxicity
• Water use
• Acidification
• Eutrophication ……..
 Impact Assessment Methods
• Different methods to perform a Life Cycle Impact Assessment.
• Methods continuously researched and developed by different scientific groups based
on different methodologies.
• Two main approaches to classify and characterize environmental impacts:
• Problem-oriented approach (mid point)
• Damage-oriented approach (end point).
• In the problem-oriented approach flows are classified as belonging to environmental
impact categories to which they contribute.
• CML and TRACI methods classified and characterized more than a thousand
substances according to their contribution to a list of environmental impact categories.
• The damage-oriented methods classify a system's flows into end-point categories as
damage to human health, ecosystem quality or to resources. (EcoIndicator 99)
• The used end points are easier to interpret and to communicate.
Selection of Impact Categories
• A number of impact categories chosen as the focus of an LCA study.
• Choice of impact categories depends on the goal of the study.
• The selected impact categories should cover the environmental
effects of the analyzed product system.
• The choice of impact categories and the choice of the impact
assessment method should be documented in the goal and scope
definition.
Classification
• The results of the Life Cycle Inventory phase include many different
emissions.
• After the relevant impact categories are selected, the LCI results are
assigned to one or more impact categories.
• If substances contribute to more than one impact category, they must be
classified as contributors to all relevant categories. For example, CO2 and
CH4 are both assigned to the impact category “global warming potential”.
• NOx emissions can be classified to contribute to both eutrophication and
acidification and so the total flow will be fully assigned to both of these
two categories.
Characterization
• Characterization describes and quantifies the environmental impact of the
analyzed product system.
• After assigning the LCI results to the impact categories, characterization factors
have to be applied to the relevant quantities.
• The characterization factors included in the selected impact category methods
like CML or TRACI.
• Results of LCI converted into reference units using characterization factors. For
example, the reference substance for the impact category “global warming
potential” is CO2 and the reference unit is defined as “kg CO2-equivalent”.
• All emissions that contribute to global warming are converted to kg CO2 -
equivalents according to the relevant characterization factor. Each emission has
its own characterization factor.
LCA impact Assessment: Midpoint and Endpoint

Adopted from TAPPI PAPERCON MAY 2-5, 2010

 Environmental impacts
Impact category / Indicator Unit Description
Indicator of potential global warming due to emissions of greenhouse
Climate change – total, fossil,
kg CO2-eq gases to air. Divided into 3 subcategories based on the emission source:
biogenic and land use
(1) fossil resources, (2) bio-based resources and (3) land use change.
Indicator of emissions to air that cause the destruction of the
Ozone depletion kg CFC-11-eq
stratospheric ozone layer
Indicator of the potential acidification of soils and water due to the
Acidification kg mol H+
release of gases such as nitrogen oxides and sulphur oxides
indicator of the enrichment of the fresh water ecosystem with
Eutrophication – freshwater kg PO4-eq nutritional elements, due to the emission of nitrogen or phosphor
containing compounds
Indicator of the enrichment of the marine ecosystem with nutritional
Eutrophication – marine Kg N-eq
elements, due to the emission of nitrogen containing compounds.
Indicator of the enrichment of the terrestrial ecosystem with nutritional
Eutrophication – terrestrial mol N-eq
elements, due to the emission of nitrogen containing compounds.
Indicator of emissions of gases that affect the creation of
Photochemical ozone formation kg NMVOC-eq photochemical ozone in the lower atmosphere (smog) catalysed by
sunlight.
Adopted from Ecochain
Impact category / Indicator Unit Description
Depletion of abiotic resources
kg Sb-eq Indicator of the depletion of natural non-fossil resources.
– minerals and metals
Depletion of abiotic resources MJ, net calorific
Indicator of the depletion of natural fossil fuel resources.
– fossil fuels value
Impact on humans of toxic substances emitted to the
Human toxicity – cancer,
CTUh environment. Divided into non-cancer and cancer related toxic
non-cancer
substances.
Impact on freshwater organisms of toxic substances emitted to
Eco-toxicity (freshwater) CTUe
the environment.
m3 world eq. Indicator of the relative amount of water used, based on
Water use
deprived regionalized water scarcity factors.
Measure of the changes in soil quality (Biotic production,
Land use Dimensionless
Erosion resistance, Mechanical filtration).
Ionising radiation, human Damage to human health and ecosystems linked to the
kBq U-235
health emissions of radionuclides.
Indicator of the potential incidence of disease due to particulate
Particulate matter emissions Disease incidence
matter emissions.

Adopted from Ecochain

EcoIndicator 99
Optional elements of an LCA
• Normalization, grouping, weighting, and evaluation, - optional
elements
• Performed to facilitate the interpretation of the LCIA results.
• Actions to be transparently documented since other individuals,
organizations and societies may have different preferences for
displaying the results and might want to normalize, evaluate, group or
weight them differently.
Key Features of Methodology
• LCA studies should systematically and adequately address the environmental
aspects of product systems, from raw material acquisition to final disposal.
• The scope, assumptions, description of data quality, methodologies and output
of LCA studies should be transparent.
• LCA studies should discuss and document the data sources, and be clearly and
appropriately communicated.
• Provisions should be made, depending on the intended application of the LCA
study, to respect confidentiality and proprietary matters.
Key Features of Methodology
• LCA methodology should be amenable to the inclusion of new scientific findings and
improvements in the state-of-the-art of the technology.
• Specific requirements applied to LCA studies used to make a comparative assertion to be
disclosed to the public.
• No scientific basis for reducing LCA results to a single overall score or number, since
trade-offs and complexities exist for the systems analysed at different stages of their life
cycle.
• No single method for conducting LCA studies.
• Organizations should have flexibility to implement LCA practically as established in this
International Standard, based upon the specific application and the requirements of the
user.
Limitations of LCA
• The nature of choices and assumptions made in LCA (e.g. system boundary setting, selection of data
sources and impact categories) may be subjective.

• Models used for inventory analysis or to assess environmental impacts limited by their assumptions,
and may not be available for all potential impacts or applications.

• Results of LCA studies focused on global and regional issues may not be appropriate for local
applications, i.e. local conditions might not be adequately represented by regional or global
conditions.

• The accuracy of LCA studies may be limited by accessibility or availability of relevant data, or by data
quality, e.g. gaps, types of data, aggregation, average, site-specific.

• The lack of spatial and temporal dimensions in the inventory data used for impact assessment
introduces uncertainty in impact results. This uncertainty varies with the spatial and temporal
characteristics of each impact category.
Example 1 – Flow chart of System
Production Overview
Production Details
Environmental Data
• Plant A
Plant C

• Plant B
Transportation and Energy Production
How much Energy Energy Carriers equivalent
= 49kWh x 3.6 MJ/kWh = 176 MJ (100 % efficiency?)
How Much Energy
Example 2: Packaging of Milk
 Emission Factors
• An emissions factor is a representative value that attempts to relate the quantity of a pollutant released to the
atmosphere with an activity associated with the release of that pollutant. These factors are usually expressed as the
weight of pollutant divided by a unit weight, volume, distance, or duration of the activity emitting the pollutant (e.g.,
kilograms of particulate emitted per megagram of coal burned). Such factors facilitate estimation of emissions from
various sources of air pollution. In most cases, these factors are simply averages of all available data of acceptable quality,
and are generally assumed to be representative of long-term averages for all facilities in the source category (i.e., a
population average).

• The general equation for emissions estimation is:

• E = A x EF x (1-ER/100)
• where:
• E = emissions;
• A = activity rate;
• EF = emission factor, and
• ER =overall emission reduction efficiency, %

Ref: Air Emissions Factors and Quantification, Basic Information of Air Emissions Factors and Quantification, https://www.epa.gov/air-emissions-factors-and-quantification/basic-
information-air-emissions-factors-and-quantification
Ref: http://shrinkthatfootprint.com/what-is-a-carbon-footprint
Ref: http://shrinkthatfootprint.com/what-is-a-carbon-footprint
Ref: http://shrinkthatfootprint.com/what-is-a-carbon-footprint
Ref: http://shrinkthatfootprint.com/what-is-a-carbon-footprint
Ref: http://shrinkthatfootprint.com/what-is-a-carbon-footprint
References & Literature
• htps://www.carbonfootprint.com/calculator.aspx
• Dana Haine, UNC-CH Institute for the Environment