28870 Energy and Sustainability

Week 9 - 8 November 2017

Life cycle assessment – Principles

Hanne Østergård

DTU Chemical Engineering, Technical University of Denmark

Programme for rest of the course

Date Lecture Title

8/11 9 (44) HØ Life Cycle Assessment - Principles

Life Cycle Assessment – Impact

15/11 10 (45) HØ
assessment, global warming potential

Energy Return on Energy investment,

22/11 11 (46) HØ
EROI
29/11 12 (47) HØ Group work on report
Peer review results, Course evaluation,
6/12 13 (48) HØ
Additional exercises.

22/12 Written exam from 9:00 to 13:00

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Programme for today
• 13:00 -13:30
– Presentation of results from group work on transition to
Paris 2015 agreement: a climate compliant global society

• 13:30-14:30
– LCA: Introduction and step 1

• 14:30-15:00
– Introduction to Assignment Part 2 including LCA Literature

• 15:00-17:00
– Group work for Assignment Part 2.

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COP23 headed by Fuji Islands
(in Bonn, Germany) 6-17 November 2017

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UNEP Emissions Gap Report 31/10 2017
(uploaded Week 8)

• Even full implementation of current unconditional and

conditional Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs)
makes a temperature increase of at least 3 oC by 2100
very likely – meaning that governments need to deliver
much stronger pledges when they are revised in 2020.

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Your scenario for CO2 emissions
Results from week 8

• Andreas' combined results from groups and all group

descriptions are uploaded
• Scenarios to investigate the Sustainable Development
Goal: CO2 emissions according to RCP2.6
– Cross group K

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Carbon emissions in your scenarios:

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Population

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Affluence

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Technology
impact intensity

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Energy use

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% nuclear
energy

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% renewable
energy

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 Blue planet Prize Laureates’ statement

• Planetary Prosperity Means Zero Carbon

• The resource hunger of the human enterprise has become

too large for our planet. The Paris Climate Agreement
recognizes this. It aims to limit global warming to less than
2°C above the preindustrial level. This means ceasing
fossil-fuel use before 2050, increasing ecosystem and
biodiversity conservation, and improving human well-being.

We, Blue Planet Laureates, wholeheartedly and

emphatically support this transformation. It is
technologically possible, economically beneficial, and our
best chance for a prosperous future.

Our planet is finite. But human possibilities are not. The

transformation will succeed if we apply people’s greatest
strengths: foresight, innovation, and care for each other.
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Programme for today
• 13:00 -13:30
– Presentation of results from group work on transition to
Paris 2015 agreement: a climate compliant global society

• 13:30-14:30
– LCA: Introduction and step 1

• 14:30-15:00
– Introduction to Assignment Part 2 including LCA Literature

• 15:00-17:00
– Group work for Assignment Part 2.

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Part 2 of the course and of the Assignment

• From sustainable development for the society to the

contribution of specific technologies to sustainable
development
• Environmental Sustainability Assessment of products and
services with a system perspective and focus on energy
and material flows.
• Learning objective:
– Understand basic principles of Environmental
Sustainability Assessment
– Understand the methodology and assumptions of
published LCA and energy analyses to be able to apply
the results in your own context.

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 Environmental Sustainability Assessment
• Comparing products or services:
– Which environmental impacts/resource uses are to be
evaluated?
– Which processes are to be considered?
– Which inputs are to be estimated?
– Which outputs are to be estimated?
– What is the final balance for each impact/resource?
• Methods considered:
– LCA
• Primary energy consumption also called Cumulative
energy demand (CED)
• Potential global warming from product/service (often
called global warming potential, GWP)
– EROI
• Energy out/Energy in

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 Learning objectives today

• If your learning from this session is satisfactory, you should

be able to

– Explain what a life cycle perspective is

– Describe the content of the first step of LCA
– Understand what system boundary and functional unit are

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 Life Cycle Assessment- LCA
Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a technique for assessing the potential
environmental aspects associated with all life stages of a product or
service (a life cycle perspective):
1. specifying goal and
scope

2. compiling an inventory of
relevant inputs and
outputs

3. evaluating the potential

environmental impacts
associated with those
inputs and outputs

4. interpreting the results of

the inventory and impact
phases in relation to the
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objectives of the study
LCA and life stages

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 LCA is standardised in ISO
• Starting in 1980s with environmental analysis
of products
– Main emphasis emission
– From cradle to grave
• Certified practitioners, External audit, Licensed
software (e.g. SimaPro, Ecoinvent)
– 14040 “Principles and framework” -
determines the overall frames, principles and
requirements for preparing and reporting of
LCAs.
– 14044 Environmental management – Life
cycle assessment – Requirements and
guidelines
• Some of the concepts from ISO LCA are used in
many kinds of life cycle assessments, e.g.
– energy consumption
– GHG emissions
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Example today

Report from 2006 – uploaded in Week 9

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LCA - STEP 1

• Goal and scope definition

– Goal: Purpose of the study and related decision process
– Scope:
1. Functional unit (service or product)
2. System boundary
3. Assessment criteria
4. Time/spatial scale
5. Technologies
6. Allocation - System expansion

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Goal definition
• Describes the purpose of the study and the decision
process for which it is made
– E.g. comparison of different products
• Approach
– Attributional: monitoring approach - aiming to give a
picture of the impacts from the system as it is
– Consequential: analysing the consequences of a change
in the system – aiming to support a system change or
not
• ISO standards requires the names of funding parties

• Vestas study (pp. 7-8):

– Environmental improvement strategies of turbine
– Document environmental performance of turbine
– Compare offshore and onshore

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LCA - STEP 1

• Goal and scope definition

– Goal: Purpose of the study and related decision process
– Scope:
1. Functional unit (service or product)
2. System boundary
3. Assessment criteria
4. Time/spatial scale
5. Technologies
6. Allocation - System expansion

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Scope 1: Functional unit
• Functional unit definition (ISO 14040) :
– quantified performance of a product system for use as
a reference unit in a life cycle assessment study
– Purpose
• to calculate all quantities relative to the
functional unit
• to make comparison between different systems
– Examples
• Product
– 1 item with a specific function
– 1 kg, 1 kWh
• Service in a specific context
– Electricity requirement of a city
– Provision of a service for a period of time
• Vestas LCA study
– 1 kWh to the existing grid
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Scope 2: System boundary

• What defines the boundary of the system that we will

describe in details.
• What are the input and outputs and which are the main
processes going on within the system for which data has
to be collected
– Different ways to present energy and material flows in
different papers.
– Energy systems diagram as described in Brown&Ulgiati
(uploaded Week 9)

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Vestas LCA System boundaries
• Offshore wind
farm
• 100 turbines

• Onshore wind
farm
• 100 turbines

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Vestas LCA life cycle stages

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Inputs for wind turbine

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Energy systems diagram
two types of electricity production systems

PES=primary energy source

PE=primary energy
E=extraction
D=delivery
R=refining
PP=power plant
Inv=investment of energy
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Scope 3: Assessment criteria

• Which environmental impacts and resources will be

studied – required to be established before the inventory
(the collection of data).

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Assessment criteria
• Ressource issues
• Environmental impact categories – Consumption of non-
– Global impacts renewable resources e.g.
• global warming • Oil
• ozone depletion • Natural gas
– Regional impacts • Iron
• Photochemical ozone depletion • Aluminium
• Acidification • Consumption of
renewable resources e.g.
• Eutrophication
• Forest biomass
• Human toxicity
• Agricultural biomass
• Ecotoxicity
• Groundwater
– Local impacts
• Freshwater
• Land use
• Odour
• Impact on working
• Division of habitats
environment
• Radiation
• Accidents
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Vestas LCA - Impact categories (p. 27)

Environmental impacts:
• Global warming
• Ozone-depletion
• Acidification
• Nutrient enrichment (eutrophication)
• Photochemical ozone formation (smog)
Toxicity:
Not included:
• Human toxicity • Noise
• Eco-toxicity • Local flora and fauna
Waste: • Area covered
• Bulk waste
• Slags and ashes
Resource consumption
• Hazardous waste dealt with separately
• Radioactive waste

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Scope 4: Time/space scale
Scope 5: Technologies
• Requirements for future validity
of results
• Requirements for spatial validity

• Determination of the relevant

technology
– Average technology
– Specific technology
– Best available technology
– Forecast technology

• Vestas: Present technologies and

processes in the industrialised
parts of the world. This is also the
case for the disposal stage even
though this will take place in
future
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Scope 6: Allocation – System expansion

• LCA often used to choose between alternatives

– Often different co-products (by-products)
• Definitions LCA – ISO14040
– Co-product: any of two or more products coming from the
same unit process or product system.
– Waste (product)= substances which the holder intends or
is required to dispose of.

• Vestas
– Only one product, i.e. no allocation is required
– Recycling
• When using recycled materials, resources, waste and
emissions for the recycling process have been
included in the assessment.
• Recovered materials are considered as avoided
production, which means that the corresponding
impacts are credited.
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The wind farm produces electricity

How to compare impacts of CO2

emisssions from electricity produced
from a wind farm with that produced
from a Combined Heat and Power plant?

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A CHP plant produces electricity and heat -
example

Electricity

Fuel Powerplant

Heat
Losses
-Flue gas
-Cooling
water

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How to calculate CO2 emisssions from
electricity production – model used in DK
NOTE plant specific

Energy content

Energy quality

Thermal efficiency
125%

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Allocation and System expansion

• According to LCA ISO standard (and consequential LCA)

– Whenever possible no allocation but expansion of the
product system
– Where allocation cannot be avoided input and output
allocated according to physical relationships
– If not possible according to economic value of the
products
• EU directive on renewable energy (biofuels) concludes
– Allocation for regulative purposes
– Substitution/system expansion for policy purposes

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Comparison of two waste management
systems by system expansion (subtraction)

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Programme for today
• 13:00 -13:30
– Presentation of results from group work on transition to
Paris 2015 agreement: a climate compliant global society

• 13:30-14:30
– LCA: Introduction and step 1

• 14:30-15:00
– Introduction to Assignment Part 2

• 15:00-17:00
– Group work for Assignment Part 2.

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Assignment – Part 2
• Aim: Part 2: Evaluate the environmental (un)sustainability
of the specific use of primary energy source(s) and
technology(ies) for providing the specific energy service in
your study area (your solutions). Compare two solutions.

• Task 1. Specify in details your energy service, the energy

sources and the energy technologies. Decide on system
boundaries. Find at least two papers from which to get the
information. (Week 9)
• Task 2. Read, understand and summarize the papers with
your specific context in mind following the four LCA steps.
(Weeks 9-11)
• Task 3. Make a Net Energy Analysis of your two solutions
(Week 11)
• Task 4. Make an easy to read and understandable report
(Weeks 11-12)
• Task 5. Take part in a peer review process of 2 group
reports. (Weeks 12-13)
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Data sources
• Purpose of LCA papers:
– Provide information for (calculating) the three indicators
CED (Week 11), GWP (Week 10) and EROI (Week 11) for
your chosen solutions and referring to your context.
• Inspiration:
– Zip-file with 37 papers in folder ‘Assignment/LCA studies’.
– Your own search for LCA studies from papers and reports
– You may need to combine data/results from several
papers
• Evaluation of your work based on
– the way you deal with the topics discussed in the lectures;
not technical details
– your critical reflection on the data applied for your
context
– the creativity of the solutions suggested

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 Report
• Front page – title, names and student numbers,
• Summary including group process (max 1/2 page)
• Table of content
• A short summary of the results from the ABCD process (max 2
pages)
• Introduction to your primary energy source(s) (max 1 page)
• Your comparison of the two solutions/papers in tables and
figures related to your context. Important to make them
comparable (max 16 pages)
• Conclusion. Which solution to choose and why including
consideration of the 4 SP (max 1½ pages)
• References - format like in Literature file (uploaded)

• Format of report: Font size of text at least 11 and line spacing at

least 1.15. References may be in Font 10 and 1.0 line spacing
• NB! Refer to all sources that you include in your work:
submitting someone else’s work as your own is plagiarism. The
report will be scanned after submission!
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Changes in programme for Week 12 and 13
• Week 12
• Wednesday Nov 29
– 13-13:30: Introduction to the peer review process
– 13:30-17: Group work to (nearly) finalize the report
• Friday Dec 01
– 9:00: Deadline for uploading report
– 11:00: Start peer review by distributing tasks within
group
• Week 13
• Wednesday Dec 06
– 13-14: Finalize peer review within group
– 14-14:30: Course evaluation
– 14:30-15: Individual Multiple choice test as example
– 15-15:30: Questions about exam
– 15:30-17: Individual work on examples of previous
exam questions
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What to remember from today

• The seriousness of the need for societal

changes (transformation) for a global
sustainable development especially with
respect to CO2 emissions

• What is a life cycle perspective

• What is the content of the first step of LCA
– Specifically system boundary and
functional unit, and allocation and
substitution

• How to proceed with the Assignment Part 2

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Program next week
• 13-15 Lecture LCA – impact assessment, global warming
potential (STEP 2, 3 and 4)
• 15-17 Group work on Assignment Part 2

• Reading material
– Hauschild and Barlaz (2010):
• LCA in waste management: Introduction to
principle and method: pp. 124-134. Section
3.1.4.4 may be omitted.

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Programme for today
• 13:00 -13:30
– Presentation of results from group work on transition to
Paris 2015 agreement: a climate compliant global society

• 13:30-14:30
– LCA: Introduction and step 1

• 14:30-15:00
– Introduction to Assignment Part 2 including LCA Literature

• 15:00-17:00
– Group work for Assignment Part 2:
• Task 1: Specifications and search for papers
• Task 2: LCA Step 1

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