Life-cycle assessment

Summary

Life cycle assessment or LCA (also known as life cycle analysis) is a methodology for assessing environmental impacts associated with all the stages of the life cycle of a commercial product, process, or service. For instance, in the case of a manufactured product, environmental impacts are assessed from raw material extraction and processing (cradle), through the product's manufacture, distribution and use, to the recycling or final disposal of the materials composing it (grave). An LCA study involves a thorough inventory of the energy and materials that are required across the industry value chain of the product, process or service, and calculates the corresponding emissions to the environment. LCA thus assesses cumulative potential environmental impacts. The aim is to document and improve the overall environmental profile of the product. Widely recognized procedures for conducting LCAs are included

Official source

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life-cycle_assessment

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Life Cycle Analysis of a Solar Tower Thermal Power Plant

Aurélie Kuenlin

In this present work, a life cycle assessment is realized on Solar Two, a test project of a solar tower thermal power plant. The aim of this study is to quantify the impacts on the environment associated with all the stages from cradle-to-grave (production, use and end of life). The ﬁrst step is to deﬁne the scope of the study: objectives, function, functional unit and system limit. Secondly, an inventory of all material, processes and energy required for the system will be made to determine relevant energy and material inputs and environmental releases which represent all the substances emitted into air, soil and water for the entire life cycle. Finally, the last two steps are the impacts analyze, which evaluates the potential impacts associated with inputs and releases, and the interpretation. The most interesting result of this analyze shows that 80% of ecological impacts are due to the steel production used to build the heliostats. Furthermore, the impact of the transmission network, material transport, potassium nitrate and mirrors are not negligible despite that their role is smaller than the steel. The variation of the steel impact is analyzed for diﬀerent solar power plants which have a optimized cost for a speciﬁc thermal power. The result shows that the steel impact decreases with the increase of the thermal power. Moreover, comparing two identical thermal power, the most expensive plant is the most ecological. Finally, the Solar Two impact was compared with other types of power plants. Coal, natural gas and nuclear power plant have, as expected, more negative eﬀect on the environment. Concerning the renewable energy, wind and hydro power plant emit around 10% less impact on the four damages categories. Only the photovoltaic impacts are similar to Solar Two with a equivalent eﬃciency. Further improvements of this LCA could now carry out. For example, the amount of steel used in the heliostats should be technically reduced or substituted by recycled steel or a material with less impact. The storage, the tower and the mirror number should also be optimized to minimize the damages on the environment. A thermo-environomic optimization is also required to ﬁnd the perfect future competitive solar tower thermal power plant.

2010

Life cycle assessment (LCA) is based on the basic principles of sustainable development. LCA method demonstrated its efficiency in providing a systematic environmental assessment approach of a product or a process. The effectiveness and efficiency of these methods lies in the fact that they take into account all life cycle stages of a product, from the extraction of raw materials to end of life treatment (recycling, ...) through an assessment covering different impact categories such as climate change, human health, ecosystems and resources. Existing LCA indicators reflect different issues surrounding resource depletion, creating inconsistency and moreover confusion among LCA practitioners. The evaluation of different life cycle impacts assessment (LCIA) methods done by EC JRC showed that available models did not address the same parameters: short- vs long-term, stock vs backup technology, etc. It also showed that if the correlation between the methods was sufficient for some resources, others such as rare earth elements showed a high level of inconsistency between methods. It was therefore necessary to develop a relevant indicator and harmonized assessment of impacts on resources in LCA. Furthermore, a resource strategy indicator based on the three pillars of sustainable development (economic, environmental and social) would better address wider challenges and making it a more powerful decision making tool. This study aimed to introduce an indicator for evaluating the strategy implications of metal resources for products and to compare different ways of production resulting from extraction of raw materials or recycling, with a special focus on rare earth materials. The indicator would assess the impacts based on a reserve-resource vision [BGS NERC] and the evolution over time and founded over three parameters: technical feasibility, economic viability and political stability (including social and environmental aspects) in representing countries.

Elsevier Science Bv2014

Global Resource Indicator for life cycle impact assessment: Applied in wind turbine case study

Different methodological approaches under Life Cycle Assessment framework are used so far to address the impact of resource depletion. However, they provide partial visions, based on limited available data, and do not reflect resource related aspects. The aim of this article is to go beyond the current Life Cycle Impact Assessment methodologies to complete the existing indicators, by adding important parameters (e.g. recycling), not yet covered by Life Cycle Assessment resource impact assessment indicators. New Characterization Factors are developed, considering different criteria which affect the availability of resources through different life cycles. Global Resource Indicator integrates resource assessment aspects to better characterize the Resource. Both recyclability and criticality of resources are part of the multi-criteria indicator complementing scarcity. Results illustrate that the importance of different resources are influenced by introduction of recyclability and criticality. The new indicator assesses all types of resources including renewables and non-renewables using regeneration rates. The sensitivity of the Characterization Factors with regard to different input parameters is tested and discussed. The results are compared with Abiotic Depletion Potentials indicator and assessment is made on the differences. The newly developed factors provide a more exhaustive vision of the availability of resources and may be used in Life Cycle Assessment or circular economy approaches. Characterization Factors, derived from the new method are tested in a wind turbine case study and their applicability is validated. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Elsevier Sci Ltd2017

Life Cycle Analysis of a Solar Tower Thermal Power Plant

Aurélie Kuenlin

2010

Elsevier Science Bv2014