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Day 3/Topic 1: Life Cycle
Thinking & Assessment
Dr. Anthony Halog Source: UNEP, ABC of
SCP. 2010
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Green and Circular Economy Challenges
Sustainable Consumption and
Production‘use of goods and services that respond to
basic needs and bring a better qualify of life, while
Minimizing the use of
natural resources, toxic materials
and emissions of waste and pollutants over the life
cycle, so as not to
jeopardize the needs of future
generations.’
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Sustainable Mining
Planning for the Future - Sustainable Mining
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Overview
Environmental Politics
Outline
I. Sustainable Development / SustainabilityII. Systems/Holistic Thinking Methods
I. LCA PrinciplesII. Steps of LCA ProcedureIII. How LCA works
III. Pros and Cons of LCAIV. Application of life cycle thinking to
assessing mine tailings management plans
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Avoid...
...solving a problem...
(Un)Sustainable developmentLife Cycle Thinking I
Industrial Ecology and Sustainable Engineering Course
Avoid...
...solving a problem...
... by creating
a problem.
(Un)Sustainable developmentLife Cycle Thinking II
A reductionist/silo/
Short-sighted/short-
term thinking approach
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Life Cycle/Systems/Holistic/Closed Loop Thinking
• Production and consumption strategies that aim at
quantifying and accounting all potential Impacts
(environmental, economic, social, etc.) that products
or technologies will have throughout their life cycles, “
from cradle to grave/cradle”. Thus, improves process
and product designs.
• Minimizing environmental impacts and resource
depletions while avoiding transferring the problem
from one life cycle stage to another.
• Vital for the pursuit of sustainable consumption and
production, sustainable energy/industrial/urban
systems, sustainable mining.10/26/2018
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Life Cycle/Systems Thinking Approaches
•Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) -
Environmental
•Life Cycle Costing (LCC) - Economic
•Social Life Cycle Assessment (SLCA)
•Eco-labeling
•Design for the Environment (DfE) or
Eco-design or Design for Sustainability
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Free LCA Software to UseCMLCA is a software tool that supports the calculation of:
• life cycle assessment (LCA), including social life cycle assessment (SLCA) and life cycle sustainability assessment (LCSA)
• input-output analysis (IOA), including environmental input-output analysis (EIOA)
• life cycle costing (LCC) and eco-efficiency analysis (E/E)• hybrid LCA, combining LCA and EIOAhttp://www.cmlca.eu/
OpenLCA is a free, professional Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and footprint software with a broad range of features and many available databases, created by GreenDelta since 2006. It is an open source software; the software and its source code is freely available. The software is fully transparent and can be modified by anyone.http://www.openlca.org/
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LCA Definition of Life Cycle Assessment from ISO 14040:
Life Cycle Assessment is the compilation and evaluation of the
inputs and outputs and the potential environmental impacts of
a product system during its lifetime.
Principle of Life Cycle AssessmentWhat is LCA about?
LCA provides a way of quantifying the diverse effects on the environment caused
by products throughout their entire life cycle.
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LCA MethodologyLCA methodology is based upon ISO Environmental
Management Systems, tools and standards on LCA:
• ISO 14040 (2006): Environmental management - Life cycle assessment -Principles and framework, International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO)
• ISO 14044 (2006): Environmental management - Life cycle assessment -Requirements and guidelines, International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO)
• ISO 1404010/26/2018
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ISO 14044• ISO 14044:2006 specifies requirements and
provides guidelines for life cycle assessment (LCA) including: definition of the goal and scope of the LCA, the life cycle inventory analysis (LCI) phase, the life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) phase, the life cycle interpretation phase, reporting and critical review of the LCA, limitations of the LCA, relationship between the LCA phases, and conditions for use of value choices and optional elements.
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Life cycle stages
Resource
extraction
Raw material
processingManufacturing Distribution Use phase Disposal
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LCA as a decision support tool?
Raw Materials
Raw Materials
Processing
Product
Manufacture
Transportation
& DistributionUse
Recycling
End
Disposal
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Life Cycle Assessment
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A coffee maker’s life cycle
From Pré Consultants, "The Eco-indicator99: A damage oriented method for Life Cycle ImpactAssessment, Manual for Designers,“ http://www.pre.nl/eco-indicator99/index.html
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WHAT LCA DOES
Life cycle assessment (LCA) evaluates the environmental interventions and potential impacts throughout a product system’s life cycle (i.e. cradle-to-grave) from raw material acquisition through production, use and disposal.
PHASES OF LCA
Inventory
analysis
Impact
assess-
ment
Direct applications:
-Product development
-Strategic planning
-Public policymaking
-Marketing
-Other
Life cycle assessment framework
Interpret-
ation
Goal and
scope
definition
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OUTPUT
INPUT
OUTPUT
INPUT
OUTPUT
INPUT
Impact
assessment
Global Warming, Ozone Depletion, Summer Smog,
Acidification, Eutrophication, Human-Toxicity, Eco-Toxicity, Landuse
Resource Consumption (Materials and Energy Carriers)
Life Cycle
Inventory
Emissions
& Wastes
Resources
OUTPUT
INPUT
OUTPUT
INPUT
Production
of
intermediates
Raw
material
extraction
Production
of main
product
UtilisationRecycling,
recovery,
disposal ...
Life Cycle
steps
Life Cycle
phasesP r o d u c t i o n p h a s e Use phase
End-of-life
phase
Principles of Life Cycle AssessmentWhere do we start? What do we do ?
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LCA procedure
Goal and scope
definition
Inventory
analysis
Impact
assessment
Classification
Characterisation
Normalisation
Weighting
Interpretation
Inputs and outputs, e.g.
MJ fossil energy
g SO2
g NOx
kg waste
Final assessment e.g.
one-dimensional index
Potential environmental
impact, e.g.
resource depletion
global warming potential
acidification potential
Types of information
generated
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1) Goal of the Life Cycle Assessment Study
Why - reason, intended application
Who - intended audience
What - product/system
Purpose - specified question
Goal and Scope
2) Scope of the study
- function of the product system
- functional unit
- description of the product system
- system boundaries
- allocation procedures
- impact categories and the impact model
- data requirements and assumptions
- limitations and data quality requirements
- peer review and the kind of reporting
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Functional Units
Source: Kwame Awuah-Offei & Akim Adekpedjou, Int J Life Cycle Assess (2011) 16:82–89 10/26/2018
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ressourcesressources
emissionsemissions
exploitationexploitationexploitation
energyenergyenergy
emissionsemissions
Cradle to graveCradle to graveCradle to grave
use phaseuse phaseuse phase disposaldisposaldisposalpreparationpreparationpreparation
intermediatesintermediatesintermediates
ressourcesressourcesresources
emissionsemissionsemissionsemissions
exploitationexploitationexploitation
energyenergyenergy
emissionsemissionsemissionsemissions
Cradle to graveCradle to graveCradle to grave
use phaseuse phaseuse phase disposaldisposaldisposalpreparationpreparationpreparation
intermediatesintermediatesintermediates
Gate to graveCradle to gate
Unit processes
Standard processes“Gate to gate”
production
Scope of the studyDefinition of System Boundaries
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Need of allocation:
In many production processes, coupled or by-products occur
The question is, which product the environmental impacts of the
process should be allocated to.
Allocation Rules:
Allocation by mass
(the impacts are ascribed to all products according to their mass)
Allocation by heating value
(the impacts are ascribed to all products according to their heating value)
Allocation by market/economic value
(the impacts are ascribed to all products according to their market value)
Allocation by other rules
(i.e. exergy, substance content, …)
Scope of the studyAllocation
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Product n
Products
Allocation
Factor:
Example Process:
Allocation Results:
Chlor-alkali
electrolysis
1.7 t salt1 t Cl2 = 90 $
1.1 t NaOH = $261.80 (238 $/t)
0.028 t H2 = $9.89 (353 $/t)
3.8 MWh electricity
Process Input Total Process Allocation
by
1 t
Cl2
1.1 t
NaOH
28 kg
H2
Electricity 3800 kWhMass 1786 1965 50
Market value 945 2750 105
Salt (NaCl) 1700 kgMass 823 905 23
Market value 435 1267 48
Scope of the studyAllocation - Example
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LCA procedure
Goal and scope
definition
Inventory
analysis
Impact
assessment
Classification
Characterisation
Normalisation
Weighting
Interpretation
Inputs and outputs, e.g.
MJ fossil energy
g SO2
g NOx
kg waste
Final assessment e.g.
one-dimensional index
Potential environmental
impact, e.g.
resource depletion
global warming potential
acidification potential
Types of information
generated
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Inventory Analysis
• This means that the inputs and outputs of all life-cycle processes have to be determined in terms of material and energy.
• Start with making a process tree or a flow-chart classifying the events in a product’s life-cycle which are to be considered in the LCA, plus their interrelations.
• Next, start collecting the relevant data for each event: the emissions from each process and the resources (back to raw materials) used.
• Establish (correct) material and energy balance(s) for each process stage and event.
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Life Cycle Inventory (LCI, ISO 14041)
- data collection
- accounting of resource consumptions and
environmental emissions for each unit process in product
system
Life Cycle Inventory
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Exchanges with the environment
Resources Chemicals Chemicals Transport
Water Water Water Packaging Water Energy
Energy Energy Energy Energy Energy
Resource
extraction
Raw material
processingManufacturing Distribution Use phase Disposal
Wastes
Emissions to
air
Discharges to
water
Wastes to landfill, substances emitted to air, substances discharged to water
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All environmentally relevant inputs and outputs (flows) for each
step (unit/key process) are taken into consideration.
System boundary
Step
1
process
3 energy
Step
2
Step
3
Step
n
electricity
thermal energy
resources
materials
auxiliary materials
others
main products
by-products
emissions to air
emissions to water
residues
wastes
main products
by-products
emissions
waste
products
materials
energy
Life Cycle InventorySystem modelling -The basis of the Life Cycle Inventory (LCI)
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Life Cycle InventoryExample of a data collection sheet
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Interactions with the environment …Resources Chemicals Chemicals Transport
Water Water Water Packaging Water Energy
Energy Energy Energy Energy Energy
Resource
extraction
Raw material
processingManufacturing Distribution Use phase Disposal
Wastes
Emissions to
air
Discharges to
water
Wastes to landfill, substances emitted to air, substances discharged to water
… aggregated across the life cycle
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Data collection - which data?
Unit/Key Process
energy
raw materials
process
chemicals
studied product
others product(s)
waste
emissions to water
emissions to air
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Data collection
Qualitative Data
Processs Technology
Age of data
System boundaries
Localisation of process
Origin of inflows
Destination of outflows
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Data flow in LCA studies
Data from the field
Data from literature,
various databases,
etc.
Data
collection/
acquisition and
interpretation
Documentation Calculation in
LCA toolResults
Report
Users
Inventory
data
Impact
assessment
data
Database Database
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Inventory Data Sources
• Field Measurements
• Electronic LCI databases and models: That come with LCA software (e.g. EcoInvent (SimaPro, GABI)
National Database Projects• NREL USLCI , CORRIM (forestry)
• Literature data: LCA reports Engineering References: Encyclopedia of Chemical Technology, etc.
Journal and conference papers National laboratory research reports Emission factors (AP-42, etc.) EPA sector notebooks
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LCA procedure
Goal and scope
definition
Inventory
analysis
Impact
assessment
Classification
Characterisation
Normalisation
Weighting
Interpretation
Inputs and outputs, e.g.
MJ fossil energy
g SO2
g NOx
kg waste
Final assessment e.g.
one-dimensional index
Potential environmental
impact, e.g.
resource depletion
global warming potential
acidification potential
Types of information
generated
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LCIA according to ISO 14042
Impact category definition
Classification
Characterisation
Mandatory Elements
LCIA profile (category indicator results)
Optional elements
Normalisation
Grouping
Weighting
Data quality analysis10/26/2018
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Impact Assessment
• Impact assessment looks at how inventory flows (cause)contribute to impacts (effect)
• Impact assessment can include Classification
• inventory flows are placed in impactcategories
• Characterization• the contribution of each inventory flow is estimated for
each impact of interest
Normalization• the contribution of the product to each impact at the
global, national, regional, or local level is assessed Valuation/ Weighting
• subjective preferences are used to prioritize impactcategories and impacts
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Impact Category Identification
Impact Categories Abrev Unit of Measure
Global Warming GW kg CO2
Acidification AC moles H+ equiv
Eutrophication EU kg N
Ozone Depletion OD kg CFC-11
Ecotoxicity EC lbs 2,4-D equiv
Human Health Cancer HHC lbs C6H6 equiv
Fossil Fuel FF MJ
Photochemical Smog PS g NOX equiv
Water Use WU gal
Land Use LU species
Human Health Noncancer HHNC lbs C7H7 equiv
Human Health Criteria HHCR total DALYs
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Global Criteria
- Resource depletion
- Global Warming Potential (GWP)
- Ozone Depletion Potential (ODP)
Regional Criteria
- Acidification Potential (AP)
- Land use
Local Criteria
- Human- and Eco-Toxicity Potential (HTP, ETP)
- Eutrophication Potential (EP)
- Photochemical Oxidant Creation Potential (POCP)
Other Criteria
- Noise, odor, landfill demand, radiation
Life Cycle Impact AssessmentCategories - global, regional and local
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Effect: Increased warming of the troposphere due to anthropogenic
greenhouse gases e.g. from the burning of fossil fuels.
Reference Substance: Carbon Dioxide (CO2)
Reference Unit: kg CO2-Equivalent
Source: IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climatic
Change)
CO2 CH4
CFCs
UV - radiation
AbsorptionReflection
Infrared
radiation
Trace gase
s in th
e a
tmosphe
re
Life Cycle Impact AssessmentGlobal Warming Potential (GWP)
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Effect: Increase in the pH-value of precipitation due to the wash-out of acidifiying gases
e.g. Sulphur dioxide (SO2) and Nitrogen oxides (NOx).
Reference Substance: Sulphur dioxide (SO2)
Reference Unit: kg SO2-Equivalent
Source: CML, (Heijungs, Centrum voor Milieukunde Leiden), 1992
SO2
NOX
H2SO44HNO3
Life Cycle Impact AssessmentAcidification Potential (AP)
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Effect: Excessive nutrient input into water, air, and land from substances such as
phosphorus und nitrogen from agriculture, combustion processes and effluents.
Reference Substance: Phosphate (PO4-)
Reference Unit: kg PO4- Equivalent
Source: CML, (Heijungs, Centrum voor Milieukunde Leiden), 1992
Waste water
Air pollution
Fertilisation
PO4-3
NO3-
NH4+
NOXN2O
NH3
Life Cycle Impact Assessment Eutrophication Potential (EP)
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HydrocarbonsNitrogen Oxides
Dry and warm
climate
Hydrocarbons
Nitrogen Oxides
Ozone
Effect: Formation of low level ozone by sunlight instigating the photochemical reaction
of nitrogen oxides with hyrocarbons and volatile organic compounds (VOC)
Reference Substance: Ethylene (C2H4)
Reference Unit: kg C2H4 -Equivalent
Source: Udo de Haes et al., 1999
Life Cycle Impact Assessment Photochemical Ozone Creation Potential (POCP) - Smog
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Effect: Continuous toxicological impact on humans
(arbitrary estimation)
Reference Substance: 1,4-Di-chloro-benzene (DCB, C6H4Cl2)
Reference Unit: kg DCB - Equivalent
Source: CML (Centrum voor Milieukunde Leiden); RIVM (National
Institute of Public Health and Environmental Protection)
Heavy metals
Halogenorganic
compounds
PCBDCB
PAH
Air
Food
Products
Life Cycle Impact Assessment Human Toxicity Potential (HTP)
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Effect: Continuous toxicological impact on water and soils
(arbitrary estimation)
Reference Substance: 1,4-Di-chloro-benzene (DCB, C6H4Cl2)
Reference Unit: kg DCB - Equivalent
Source: CML (Centrum voor Milieukunde Leiden); RIVM (National
Institute of Public Health and Environmental Protection)
(Terrestrial Ecosystem)
Biosphere
Heavy metals
Halogenorganic
compounds
PCB
DCB
PAH
Biosphere
(Aquatic ecosystem)
Life Cycle Impact Assessment Aquatic (AETP) and Terrestrial (TETP) = Ecotoxicity Potential (ETP)
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Mid-point indicators End-point indicators
Non-renewable energy
Mineral extraction
Water use
Global warming Climate change
Ecotoxicity
Acidification
Nutrification
Land occupation
Carcinogenic impacts
Respiratory impacts
Ozone layer depletion
Ionizing radiation
Resource depletion
Ecosystem quality
Human health
Characterisation of impacts
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Classification
Emissions are
classified into
categories
according to
their different
impacts
Characterization
Factors defining
potential of
emissions in each
impact category
Life Cycle Impact AssessmentClassification and Characterization
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Resources.....
Emissions to airCO2
COCF4
CH4
N2ONOx
SO2
HClHF.....
Emissions to waterPhosphateNH3
NH4
.....
CO2
COCF4
CH4
N2O
GWP13
630021
270
NOx
SO2
HClHF
AP0.7
10.881.6
NOx
PhosphateNH3
NH4
EP0.13
10.330.33
GWPi * Emissioni [kg]
APi * Emissioni [kg]
EPi * Emissioni [kg]
GWP
AP
EP
Inventory
Life Cycle Impact Assessment (Classification Phase)Process of calculating the impacts from inventory parameters
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1 kg CH4 is equivalent to the impact of 23 kg CO2
Inventory value
25 kg CO2
2 kg CH4
1 Kg N2O
GWP Factor
1
23
300
*
*
*
*
Impact potential
25 [kg CO2-Equivalent]
46 [kg CO2-Equivalent]
300 [kg CO2-Equivalent]
=
=
=
=
Total: 371 [kg CO2-Equivalent]
Life Cycle Impact Assessment (Characterisation)Calculation of impact potential per category
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Impact Assessment
• Normalization
Characterization results are compared to important levels of impacts (at the national level, for the technology being replaced, etc.)
• Valuation
Impacts are weighted by their value to decisionmakers
•How much more important is climate change when compared to human health or endangered species?•Multi-attribute utility theory
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describe the amount of a criteriondescribe the amount of a criterion
The impact potentials quantify the potential for specific ecological problems. They are not directly comparable.
In the normalization step the relative contribution of each problem can be distinguished.
For normalization, referencefactors (RF) are used which
produced for a reference regionor country (e.g., Germany or USA)
GWPRF
GWPvalue
=
For normalization, referencefactors (RF) are used which
produced for a reference region
during a time period (e.g., 1 year)
GWPRF
GWPvalue
=
Life Cycle Impact Assessment Normalization of the results from Impact Assessment
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Total 67 kg CO2 Equivalent
/
1.0553E+12 kg CO2-Equivalent
Normalized Global Warming Potential 6.35e-11
In this step the impact potentials are put in relation to the total
potential in a defined reference area i.e. Germany.
Result: non-dimensional quantities, which allow
comparison of impact potentials
Reference Factor (100 yrs)
GWP Example System
=
Life Cycle Impact Assessment Impact Assessment - Normalization of the impact potentials
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0,0E+00
5,0E-12
1,0E-11
1,5E-11
2,0E-11
2,5E-11
3,0E-11
GWP 100
Year [-]ODP [-] AP [-] EP [-] POCP [-]
GermanyEU
World
0,00
0,50
1,00
1,50
2,00
2,50
GWP 100
Year [-]ODP [-] AP [-] EP [-] POCP [-]
GermanyEU
World
Impact categories
normalized for
different regions
Impact categories
normalized in
relation to GWP
Life Cycle Impact AssessmentExample of normalization for the manufacturing of a fuel tank
Industrial Ecology and Sustainable Engineering Course
LCIA Impact Assessment Results
56
Cumulative environmental impacts of development, operation and a 2 year site closure phase; Bars show impacts of scenarios 1A, 1B, 1C, 2A, 2B and 2C, respectivelyThe unit pers*year indicates that the results were divided by the average per capitacontribution to the damage categories for a given region, in this case Western Europe.10/26/2018
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LCA procedure
Goal and scope
definition
Inventory
analysis
Impact
assessment
Classification
Characterisation
Normalisation
Weighting
Interpretation
Inputs and outputs, e.g.
MJ fossil energy
g SO2
g NOx
kg waste
Final assessment e.g.
one-dimensional index
Potential environmental
impact, e.g.
resource depletion
global warming potential
acidification potential
Types of information
generated
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Interpretation:
On the basis of the inventory results and the impact assessment
the analysis and interpretation of the study is performed. These are
the fundamentals for further discussions or system optimization.
Report:
Prerequisites of performing a life cycle assessment are the
definition and the specification of a large number of system
boundaries as well as the description of the system investigated.
To guarantee the traceability of the results obtained, a defined way
of reporting is necessary.
Critical Review:
If a study compares competitive products and will be published, a
critical review of the study is compulsory.
Principles of Life Cycle AssessmentThe final steps: Interpretation, Report and Critical Review
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Interpretation
• The final step in Life-Cycle Analysis is to identify areas for improvement.
• Consult the original goal definition for the purpose of the analysis and the target group.
• Life-cycle areas/processes/events with large impacts (i.e., high numerical values) are clearly the most obvious candidates
• However, what are the resources required and risk involved?
– Good areas of improvement are those where large improvements can be made with minimal (corporate) resource expenditure and low risk.
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Limitations of LCA• LCA results are geographically dependent. Hence, the results of an
LCA carried out in Europe or Australia cannot be applied directly to China without taking into account the significant variations related to the geographical context (for example, China relies on fossil fuels while Europe employs other sources of energy such as nuclear)
• Assesses potential impacts and not real impacts. Hence, it does not provide any information on the consequences of not following regulations or on environmental risks
• The results of two LCAs on a same product system may differ according to the objectives, processes, quality of the data, and the impact assessment methods used. This is why ISO insists on transparency in performing LCA.
• A detailed LCA requires inventory data of all of the elementary processes included within the system boundary.
• Databases, LCA software, and even human resources are required to analyze all the data.
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Who Uses LCA and Why?
Industry Hot spot identification
Product improvement
Product design
Marketing
Eco-labelling
Governments Policy formulation
NGO’s Lobbying
Public education
Consumers Purchasing choice
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Application areas for LCA
Eco-design
Cleaner production
Ecoefficiency
Green procurement
Ecolabelling
Life cycle management
Green supply chain mgt
Sustainability reporting
Policy-making, ex IPP
Packaging
Waste management, Water systems
Food & agriculture & fishing
Biofuels
Transportation, vehicles
Fuels, ”well-to-wheel”
Energy production
Building materials
Buildings
Hotels, services, tourism
Textiles, ICT
Pulp & paper, graphical
Mechanical industry
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Internal benefits
- Detection of strategic risks and
environmental issues
- Identification of relevant steps in the
complete life cycle of products
- Development of sustainable products
based on environmental information
- Support in fulfilling laws and restrictions
- Communication with politics and
authorities
- Improvement of motivation of employees
- Support in environmental management
systems (i.e. EMAS II)
Benefits of LCA
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External benefits
- Improvement of image due to ecological
considerations
- Supporting environmental innovations and
decrease of environmental impacts
- Competitive advantage by inclusion of
environmental aspects
Benefits of LCA
Industrial Ecology and Sustainable Engineering Course
Summary LCA is a systems approach that examines the potential
environmental impacts of product or service throughout its life cycle
Avoids simply shifting the source of the pollution from one life cycle stage to another or from one medium to another;
ISO standardized method
Involves goal and scope of the study, inventory analysis, impact assessment and interpretation.
Important to define functional unit, allocation procedure, system boundary explicitly
Results of LCAs on a same subject may differ according to the objectives, processes, quality of the data, and the impact assessment methods used.
Detailed LCA requires inventory data of all of the elementary processes included within the system boundary.
Databases, LCA software, and even human resources are required to analyze all the data.
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Application of life cycle thinking to
assessing environmental impacts in
mining and mineral processing industry
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“Mining companies are increasingly adopting ISO 14001
certified environmental management systems (EMSs). A
key requirement of ISO certified EMSs is continual
improvement, which can be better managed with life cycle
thinking.”
“The limited number of mining LCAs may be due to the lack
of life cycle thinking in the industry.”
-Kwame Awuah-Offei & Akim Adekpedjou, Int J Life Cycle
Assess (2011) 16:82–89
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LCA of Sulphidic Tailings Management Options
The Mining, Minerals and Sustainable Development (MMSD) project concluded that "LCA is a useful tool to provide an assessment of environmental considerations during decision making within the industry" (Stewart, 2001).
“The generic data used are often inadequate for a mining LCA, and cannot be used as an accurate account of mining environmental burdens contributing to more complex systems ‘‘down-stream’’, such as metals, building, chemical or food industries.” (Durucan et al, 2006)
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Goal & Scope of Study
The goals of the study were to draw the inventory of these management scenarios from the development to the post-closure phase, to assess and compare their environmental impacts and to determine the importance of the land-use impact category. The functional unit (FU) was defined as the management of the total production (1994-2005) of tailings from processing copper and zinc ore, for the extraction of 15 500 000 tons of mineral ore. 10/26/2018 Industrial Ecology and Sustainable Engineering Course 68
LCA of Sulphidic Tailings Management OptionsCompared Sulphidic Tailings Management ScenariosSource: Lesage et al., Use of LCA in the Mining Industry and Research Challenges
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Source: C. Reid et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 17 (2009) 471–47910/26/2018Industrial Ecology and Sustainable
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Mass inputs and outputs for the development stage (taken from Reid, 2006)
Life Cycle Inventory Results
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Main mass inputs and outputs for the operating stage (taken from Reid, 2006)10/26/2018Industrial Ecology and Sustainable
Engineering Course72
Main mass inputs and outputs for hypothetical closure options. All the material inputs have been calculated except for land occupation (taken from Reid, 2006)10/26/2018
Industrial Ecology and Sustainable Engineering Course
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Life Cycle Impact Assessment (Impact 2002 _ Method)
14 Mid-point Categories Considered• Human toxicity (HT) (carcinogen and non-carcinogen effects);• Respiratory effects caused by inorganics (RI);• Ionizing radiation (IR);• Ozone layer depletion (OLD);• Photochemical oxidation (PO);• Aquatic ecotoxicity (AE);• Terrestrial ecotoxicity (TE);• Aquatic acidification (AA);• Aquatic eutrophication (AEu);• Terrestrial acidification and nitrification (TAN);• Land occupation (LO);• Global warming (GW);• Non-renewable energy (NRE)• Mineral extraction (ME)
Source: C. Reid et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 17 (2009) 471–479 10/26/2018
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Life Cycle Impact Assessment
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Life Cycle Impact Assessment
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LCIA – Four Damage Categories
Human Health (HH)
Ecosystem Quality (EQ)
Climate Change (CC)
Resource Use (R)
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LCIA Impact Assessment Results
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Cumulative environmental impacts of development, operation and a 2 year site closure
phase; Bars show impacts of scenarios 1A, 1B, 1C, 2A, 2B and 2C, respectively
The unit pers*year indicates that the results were divided by the average per capita
contribution to the damage categories for a given region, in this case Western Europe.10/26/2018 Industrial Ecology and Sustainable Engineering Course
Interpretation Overall damages for the three life cycle stages show, for all damage categories, that
sending all tailings to a sub-aqueous disposal area (Scenarios “1”) is environmentally
preferable than processing a fraction of the tailings for use as a paste backfill (Scenarios
“2”), although the magnitude of this preference is not the same for all damage categories.
It can be observed that this general tendency is due to higher Operation impacts, for all
Scenarios. In general, it is the operation phase that dominates impacts, and Scenarios “2”
impacts for this life cycle stage are greater because the processing of tailings requires,
overall, much more material (predominantly slag and cement) and energy than simple
disposal. The impact categories that do not follow this tendency are: “human toxicity”
associated mostly with the outflow of water from the polishing pond; “aquatic acidification”
associated mostly with the tailing disposal site seepage; and finally “land occupation”
associated mostly with the amount of land occupied by the disposal area. This particular
impact category dominates the total damages to ecosystem quality damage category for
Scenarios “1”, and explains why, for this specific damage category, the difference between
Scenarios “1” and “2” are so low.
When considering only the site closure life cycle stage, it can be observed that the
Scenarios “1” are consistently higher than impacts of Scenarios “2”. This was to be
expected since all impacts are a function of the tailings disposal area and water effluent,
which is smaller for Scenarios “2”.
Comparison of closure options B and C shows that emissions are always higher for
option C. Again, this was to be expected since the difference between these options is that 3
layers are necessary for the CCBE (C) versus 1 layer for the desulphurized cover (B), (C)
hence needing more materials and more operation of off-road equipment. In comparison to
options B and C, emissions for option A are much lower, as the intervention is much less
intensive.
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Cumulative normalized ecosystem quality impacts of development, operation and site
closure phase over 100 years
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Interpretation
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After the 2-year closure period, the tailings disposal site will still generate potential
impacts. First, the tailings disposal site will remain in a state that prevents any return
to the initial state (hence producing long term land-use impacts). Moreover, the
tailings disposal site still produces seepage and a final effluent containing
contaminants. In order to capture these impacts, the time frame was expanded to a
100 year site closure phase.
Figure 2 show the influence of the time frame on the ecosystem quality indicator.
Whereas with a short timeframe, Scenarios “1” are clearly preferable to Scenarios
“2”, the contrary becomes true after about 10 years of site closure. In other words,
the more impactful activities of backfilling can actually be seen as an “investment”,
paying off, for this damage category, after about 10 years. This is largely due to the
land occupation impacts, which are (1) an important contributor to the ecosystem
quality damage category, (2) much higher for Scenarios “1”, and (3) are a function of
time (the more time land covered, the greater the impact). Thus, the importance of
the land-use category changes to such an extent that it affects the result
interpretation in favour of backfilling and the CCBE options (“C” options), for which
land is reclaimed. Note that this effect is not observed for the other damage
categories.
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Main Results from LCA Scenario 2 options (tailings disposal site and backfill plant) lead to
higher impacts in 11 of the 14 midpoint categories since the backfill
plant operation consumes a great amount of material and energy.
The exceptions are: aquatic acidification, human toxicity and land
occupation which are more dependant upon water management
and occupied surfaces.
Closure option C (CCBE) is the most harmful over the 2-year
closure period since it requires seed production and greater
machinery work.
Damage scores over the life cycle (development, operation and 2-
year closure) show that Scenario 1A generates the least impacts,
mainly because it is the scenario which requires the least effort.
Temporal boundaries extension tends to modify the results
interpretation in favour of Scenario 2C because of land quality
improvement.
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LICYMIN – Mining Life Cycle Modelling
Tool The LICYMIN model is a tool designed to build a detailed and change-
oriented Life Cycle Assessment System for mining. Three are three
subsystems into which the mining system is broken down, and are covered
by this model, namely Extraction (Production), Mineral Processing and
Waste Remediation. The present model offers the means to the LCA
practitioner to handle, manipulate, organise and analyse large amount of
mining data; as well as present the results in a coherent manner. However,
the conceptualisation of the LCA study and quality of the data used rest
entirely on the LCA practitioner.
The model integrates the mine production, processing, waste treatment and
disposal, rehabilitation and aftercare stages of a mine’s life within an LCA
framework.
More details at http://cordis.europa.eu/result/report/rcn/40797_es.html
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The mining life cycle impact assessment system and model boundaries
84Source: S. Durucan et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 14 (2006) 1057e1070
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Generalised mining methods, systems and operation options for surface and
underground mining in metal ore production.
85Source: S. Durucan et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 14 (2006) 1057e1070
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Challenges to LCA applications in mining LCA awareness and tools
Functional unit and scoping
Impact categories
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Research Challenges• Mining specific LCA modelling framework
• Characterizing data uncertainty
• Mining LCA software development
• Better Integration of Temporal Aspects in LCA
• Improvement of the Land Use Impact Indicator
1. Characterization of land use impacts
2. Assessing the spatial variability
• Improvement of Metal Toxicity and Ecotoxicity
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