Вы находитесь на странице: 1из 6

CIVE 5699: SPECIAL TOPICS IN CIVIL ENGINEERING (SPRING 2013)

LIFE CYCLE ASSESSMENT OF MATERIALS, PRODUCTS, AND INFRASTRUCTURE

ASSIGNMENT 2- LIFE CYCLE INVENTORY


Due before class Friday, February 1 as email or hard copy

1. Download the Spreadsheet LCA matrix model from the Course Material folder of Blackboard, where you will find a record of the matrix calculations we used in class to calculate the LCI of 10 aluminum packages. Use it to solve the following life cycle inventory problem, based on the tea example we used in class (now in SI units), by filling in the missing entries in the table.
Economic / Environmtl. Flows Electricity (MJ) Filtered Water (kg) Tea (kg) Brewed Tea (kg) Drinking (kg) Coal (kg) Raw Water (kg) CO2 (kg) Nitrogen (kg) Solid Waste (kg) Electricity from Coal 1 -0.05 0 0 0 -0.1 -0.16 0.18 0.01 0.05 Filtered Water -0.05 1 0 0 0 0 -1 0 0 0 Unit Processes Tea Brewing Use / EoL 0 0 1 0 0 0 -10 -0.1 0.2 1 -0.1 -1 -0.05 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 -1 1 0 0 0 0 0.07 Ref. Flow/ LCI 0 0 0 0 0.2

a. Describe in words the Electricity from Coal and Tea unit processes. Do the values and units make sense to you? What other input or output flows could you add to the table? b. What is the carbon footprint of your cup of tea (that is, the life cycle CO2 emissions associated with the reference flow)? c. Which would be a more effective water saving measure from a life cycle point of view: moving to air-cooled power plants (no raw water intake for cooling) or introducing drip irrigation in tea plantations (reduce water consumption per unit tea by 90%)? Solution 1: A)Unit process electricity from Coal needs 10 kilogram of Coal ,with an intake of 1.6 kilogram of Raw water for cooling of the plant and 0.5 kilogram of filtered water for the production of 10 mj of electricity. Emissions from the process of combustion includes: 1.CO2-1.8 kilograms 2.nitrogen-1kilogram 3.solid waste-0.5 kilogram

-1-

CIVE 5699: SPECIAL TOPICS IN CIVIL ENGINEERING (SPRING 2013)


LIFE CYCLE ASSESSMENT OF MATERIALS, PRODUCTS, AND INFRASTRUCTURE
Unit process of tea requires 100 kilograms of raw water for cultivating 10 kilograms of tea.In this process , takes 1 kilogram of Co2 and emits nitrogen(nitrogen did oxide) of 2 kilo grams and a solid waste of wood stems of 10 kilograms. B)4.414 grams of CO2 is emitted in processing of making a cup of tea. C) please see the excel sheet attached. 2.Create a table, similar to that in problem 1, that describes the product system of producing a pair of jeans in a garment factory with an electric sewing machine. Do some research to figure out what reasonable inputs and outputs from each unit process might be, but these do not have to be exact reasonable guesses are fine. Feel free to keep the same list of environmental flows (you will have to revise the economic flows). Please limit the table to between 3 and 5 unit processes.

Economic / Environmtl. Flows Electricity (MJ) cotton (kg) Color Dye (kg) Denim Fiber (kg) jeans (kg) Coal (kg) Raw Water (kg) CO2 (kg) Nitrogen (kg) Solid Waste (kg)

Electricity from Coal 1 0 0 0 0 -0.45 -0.16 0.18 0.01 0.05

cotton -12 1 0 0 0 0 -0.5 0.75 0 0.4

Unit Processes Color Denim Dye fiber -1 -0.6 0 -4 1 -0.05 0 1 0 0 0 0 -4 0 0.1 0 0.05 0 0 0.3

Use / EoL 0 0 0 -1 1 0 0 0 0 0.07

Ref. Flow/ LCI 0 0 0 0 1 -4 -8.3 12.3 0.6 4.13

The manufacturing process for a pair of denim jeans begins with the agricultural production of cotton. These cotton crops guzzle 1,500 gallons of water to produce 1.5 lbs of cotton which is the amount required to make a single pair of jeans. Denim production for jeans also requires over 16 ounces of oil to run the machinery to transport the water needed to produce one pair of jeans

(http://www.standard.net/topics/opinion/2011/04/26/producing-denim-jeans-takes-tollenvironment) Assumptions: Instead of oil I took coal as a substitute 16 ounce = 0.45359237 kilograms
Since area of cotton is not mentioned for simplicity I am considering 0.5 kg of water gives 1 kilo gram of cotton The by products of dying process are mentioned here (http://www.cotton.org/journal/2007-11/3/upload/jcs11-141.pdf) For the estimation of emissions I found this link:

-2-

CIVE 5699: SPECIAL TOPICS IN CIVIL ENGINEERING (SPRING 2013)


LIFE CYCLE ASSESSMENT OF MATERIALS, PRODUCTS, AND INFRASTRUCTURE
http://oecotextiles.wordpress.com/2011/01/19/estimating-the-carbon-footprint-of-a-fabric/ and the steps taken for reduction is als mentioned here ;( http://rendezvous.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/08/20/sustainable-innovation-reducing-fashionscarbon-footprint/) 3.Now using SimaPro, create a cradle-to-gate life cycle inventory of a consumer product, namely, the Circustlt kids tent from IKEA (incidentallly, a favorite at our house): http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/10206883/ On the website you can find information on dimensions, materials, and package weight (this includes packaging materials). (If you really like the looks of it or want to rip it apart for your assignment, you can also go down to the Stoughton store and get one for yourself.) Use for the reference flow one product at the IKEA store, including packaging. For simplicity, assume it is manufactured in its entirety in Europe of European materials and shipped to the U.S. Include materials, processing, and transportation unit processes, and feel free to make any reasonable assumptions. Use only ecoinvent unit processes to complete your inventory. Take a screenshot of the assembly. Next, press the Network button and take a screen shot of the unit process network. Explore the network and write a few sentences about what you see

-3-

CIVE 5699: SPECIAL TOPICS IN CIVIL ENGINEERING (SPRING 2013)


LIFE CYCLE ASSESSMENT OF MATERIALS, PRODUCTS, AND INFRASTRUCTURE

Here

-4-

CIVE 5699: SPECIAL TOPICS IN CIVIL ENGINEERING (SPRING 2013)


LIFE CYCLE ASSESSMENT OF MATERIALS, PRODUCTS, AND INFRASTRUCTURE
4.Now you will attach the waste scenario to your inventory. Go to Product stages > Life cycle and create a new life cycle. Enter in your Circustlt assembly in the appropriate place. Now choose a waste scenario, preferably one of the country scenarios. Again press the Network button but this time use an impact assessment method of Single Issue>IPCC 2007 100a that will give you the carbon footprint of the product. Once the network is visible, set the cut-off set enough that waste management impacts are visible. a. What percentage of the total life cycle carbon footprint is contributed by waste management? b. Do you see any linkages between waste management unit processes and those involved in the production phase? (If not, you can lower your cut-off threshold to see if such links appear.) Write a couple sentences interpreting these links. c. Now go back to the LCA Explorer (SimaPros main page) and View any recycling process from the Process > Waste treatment > Recycling menu in the LCA Explorer. Look carefully at the Input/output tab. Why arent we seeing any credits being given for recycling? Give an explanation for this from an allocation methodoly point of view.

-5-

CIVE 5699: SPECIAL TOPICS IN CIVIL ENGINEERING (SPRING 2013)


LIFE CYCLE ASSESSMENT OF MATERIALS, PRODUCTS, AND INFRASTRUCTURE

A) About 7% of the total carbon foot print(0.805kg) B) The linkages between nylon-6 disposal of plastics mixture which is in turn related to disposal of municipal waste and disposal of plastic mixtures to sanitary C) Credits are not been shown as cicustalt is primary ,where has recycled is a sub process of the main process.

-6-

Вам также может понравиться