Life cycle assessment

This presentation deals with the life cycle assessment.

1. LIFE CYCLE ASSESSMENT S.G.Mohanapourani, 2015006028, III- B.Sc., Horticulture, HC&RIW, TNAU, Trichy .

2. LCA stands for Life Cycle Assessment. It is a technique that tries to identify, measure and characterize different potential environmental impacts associated to each one of the stages of the life cycle of a product What is LCA?

3. LIFE CYCLE ASSESSMENT PROCESS

4. What LCA aims at? LCA aims to understand the flows of matter and energy involved in the product, material, manufacturing process , packaging, etc. and find out what are the environmentally critical points, and prevent or remove them using other materials or systems

5. TYPES OF LCA Cradle-to-Grave Cradle-to-Gate Cradle-to-Cradle Gate-to-Gate Wheel-to-Wheel Ecology-based

6. CRADLE-TO-GRAVE Cradle-to-grave is the full Life Cycle Assessment from resource extraction ('cradle') to use phase and disposal phase ('grave').

7. CRADLE-TO-GATE Cradle-to-gate is an assessment of a partial product life cycle from resource extraction ( cradle) to the factory gate (i.e., before it is transported to the consumer)

8. CRADLE-TO-CRADLE Cradle-to-cradle is a specific kind of cradle-to-grave assessment , where the end-of-life disposal step for the product is a recycling process . It is a method used to minimize the environmental impact of products by employing sustainable production, operation, and disposal practices and aims to incorporate social responsibility into product development.

9. GATE-TO-GATE Gate-to-gate is a partial LCA looking at only one value-added process in the entire production chain.

10. WHEEL-TO-WHEEL Well-to-wheel is the specific LCA used for transport fuels and vehicles. The first stage, which incorporates the feedstock or fuel production and processing and fuel delivery or energy transmission, and is called the "upstream " stage. The stage that deals with vehicle operation itself is sometimes called the " downstream“ stage .

11. ECOLOGY-BASED Eco-LCA is a methodology that quantitatively takes into account regulating and supporting services during the life cycle of economic goods and products. It was designed to provide a guide to wise management of human activities by understanding the direct and indirect impacts on ecological resources and surrounding ecosystems

12. WHAT CAN BE DONE WITH LCA? 1.Product or project development and improvement 2.Strategic planning 3.Public policy making 4.Marketing and eco-declarations

13. Processes involved in LCA

14. PHASES OF LCA STUDY

15. Phase of goal and scope definition This is a key step and the ISO standards require that the goal and scope of an LCA be clearly defined and consistent with the intended application. The goal and scope document therefore includes technical details that guide subsequent work

16. Steps involved in Goal and scope definition • Product system to study • The functions of the product system • The functional unit • The system limits • Assumptions • Limitations • Data Requirements

17. Phase of inventory analysis Inventory’ literally means listing of products. Life Cycle Inventory (LCI) analysis involves creating an inventory of flows from and to nature for a product system . Inventory flows include inputs of water, energy, and raw materials, and releases to air, land, and water. It also involves data collection and quantification of needed input/output data.

18. Phase of impact assessment Environmental impact is an alteration of the initial characteristics of the environment caused by a project,work or activity. It is the set of consequences for human health , welfare of the flora and fauna and the future availability of natural resources attributable to the input or output streams of a system.

19. STEPS INVOLVED This process comprises of the following procedures: • selection of impact categories, category indicators, and characterization models; • the classification stage, where the inventory parameters are sorted and assigned to specific impact categories; • impact measurement, where the categorized LCI flow are characterized

20. Phase of interpretation Life Cycle Interpretation is a systematic technique to identify, quantify, check, and evaluate information from the results of the life cycle inventory and/or the life cycle impact assessment. The results from the inventory analysis and impact assessment are summarized during the interpretation phase . The outcome of the interpretation phase is a set of conclusions and recommendations for the study .

21. THANK YOU !