Application-of-life-cycle-assessment-to-chemical-processes_2017.pdf文档.pdf

Chemical Engineering Science 56 (2001) 2589}2604 Review Application of life cycle assessment to chemical processes A. A. Burgess , D. J. Brennan * Comalco Research Technical Support, Thomastown, Vic. 3074, Australia Department of Chemical Engineering, Monash University, Clayton, Vic. 3800 Australia Received 12 January 2000; received in revised form 11 October 2000; accepted 26 October 2000 Abstract The literature on the application of life cycle assessment (LCA) to process industry products and particularly to chemical processes has been reviewed. The main purpose of an LCA is to provide a quantitative assessment of the environmental impact of products over their entire life cycle, with a view to making improvements. Application to processes, which are key parts of the life cycle, is important in the context of process design and development, and in the analysis of processing chains. Reference is made to some important techniques for environmental assessment which interface with LCA when evaluating processes. The essential features of the LCA methodology are reviewed and some specic di$culties in the application of LCA are identied and discussed. These di$culties include allocation of impacts to multiple products, the denition of system boundaries, the quality of data, temporal and spatial characteristics, and impact assessment methods. Consideration is given to the combined use of LCA with economic evaluations, which is important in the process industry context. Finally, some cases of