Coffee Maker Example

Transcription

1 Coffee Maker Example 1

2 Define step by step the overall activity to carry out a Life Cycle Assessment of a Coffee Maker 1. WHAT IS THE OBJECTIVE OF MY ANALYSIS? 2. WHERE DO YOU STOP DRAWING THE BOUNDS? 3. WHAT DATA DO I HAVE TO INCLUDE IN THE ANALYSIS? WHERE CAN I FIND THEM? Source: 2

3 Step 1 Goal definition and scope Goal Definition: Establish how to improve the environmental performance of the Coffee Maker Functional unit: 3650 filters (5 cups twice a day) System boundaries: from cradle to grave (all the life cycle stages) Source: 3

4 DISTRIBUTION PRODUCTION 1. Draw up a schematic overview of the product life cycle, paying equal attention to production, use and waste processing Source:

5 2. Establish (correct) material and energy balance(s) for each stage and event Energy Process Materials, Reagents Emissions Product Material Input Unit Process Waste Primary Product and co-product

6 3. Establish (correct) material and energy balance(s) for each stage and event White blocks have been omitted Source: The functional unit (10 cups for day using the Coffee Maker twice a day) is important to quantify the amount of electricity and filters

7 Finding data is hard and usually very time-consuming: The production manager does not have information about the external phase (i.e. usage, distribution, disposal) The shift and the production manager sometimes have information about the complete production line and do not have specific information about a single product CEOs don t want to share their know-how Published data on material loads exist, but they are often inconsistent and/or not directly applicable

8 During a Life Cycle Inventory the assumption and the hypothesis that have been done should be indicated In the Coffee Maker example it has been decided to exclude: Coffee bean production and transportation Water consumption of use phase Coffee and filters disposal Mistakes are easily made in quantification Mass and energy balances may not be correct

9 1. Define the impact categories 2. Determine which loads affect the impact categories 3. Assign indicators to the impact categories 4. Weigh the importance of each category Environmental Load Copper CO2 CFC SO2 NOx Phosphorous Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) Heavy metals PCB Pesticides Styrene Environmental Impact depletion of biotic resources depletion of abiotic resources greenhouse effect ozone layer depletion acidification eutrophication (summer) smog human toxicity eco-toxicity odor Source: ISO 14044:2006

10 Ecoindicator 99 Different from the game indicator Source:

11 Subjective, subjective, subjective Impact categories chosen Indicators chosen for the impact categories How metrics / load affect impact indicators Weights used for the impact categories Where are the impacts occurring? U.S., Europe, Brazil? The indicators shall distinguish the regional effects Emissions made in Asia have different impact from those made in Europe Is there already damage in the area being impacted? How are managers and engineers supposed to know the effects of every load on the different impacts?

12 1. During this phase the results related to the goal of the analysis should be evaluated E.G. In coffee machine example: Higher impacts are caused by use phase Electricity consumption 2. Identify areas & opportunities for improvement Assign greater priority to lower energy consumption

13 How to improve the coffee maker? Where should we focus? The size of each block is a measure of the relative contribution to the total It is a fair representative of appliances - main impact is the use phase Source:

14 Compare results with published analysis If you find many big differences Check the completeness of your inventory Sensible analysis to improve the results and carry out details to make modifications on the Coffee Maker production

15 Politecnico di Milano 2014 This work is subject to copyright. Duplication of this document or parts thereof is permitted only under the explicit consent of Politecnico di Milano. The authors can t accept any legal responsibility for any errors or omissions that may be made.