Letzte Änderung : 24.01.2025 22:00:32   


Modulausgabe

Code: 266150
Modul: Product Life Cycle Assessment
Module title: Product Life Cycle Assessment
Version: 1.0 (05/2020)
letzte Änderung: 26.06.2020 11:53:45
Modulverantwortliche/r: Prof. Dr.-Ing. Hildebrandt, Jakob
Jakob.Hildebrandt@hszg.de

Dipl.-Ing. (FH) Will, Markus
M.Will@hszg.de


Modul läuft im: SoSe (Sommersemester)
Niveaustufe:Master
Dauer des Moduls:1 Semester
Lehrort:Zittau
Lehrsprache:Englisch

ECTS-Punkte: 5
Gesamtworkload in h 150

Präsenzzeit
gesamt SWS
davon
2
1
Vorlesung
1
Seminar/Übung
0
Praktikum
0
Weiteres
Selbststudienzeit
in h
gesamt

128


Lehr- und Lernformen:The contents of the course will be provided by sessions through (online) lectures and seminars, which are supplemented group discussions and group work. A selection of literature is recommended for each topic. Furthermore a comprehensive written-text, including excercises and review questionsis provided.


Prüfung(en)
Prüfung: Prüfungsleistung als Beleg (PB)
 - 
 100.0%



Lehrinhalte: 1) Why life cycle assessments?

E-Book or traditional book? Hybrid engine or conventional car drive? Plastic or a real Christmas tree? Organic chicken or factory farming? Which product is more environmentally friendly? When are the strongest environmental impacts of a mobile phone? During production, use or recycling? Do photovoltaic systems make ecological sense at all? Isn´t much more energy used for their manufacture and disposal than they can produce? To answer such questions, a holistic, systematic and quantitative method called Life Cycle Assessment must be used. Life cycle assessments serve as an important basis for decision-making in business, politics and ultimately for consumers. It is not a test of product quality, however, but rather a comparison of the environmental consequences of providing a function and an assessment of whether ecological improvements do not also lead to deterioration in other environmental categories. In the workshop, basic principles of the LCA methodology will be explained with the help of practical examples, possibilities and limits of the approach will be discussed and examples of studies will be presented.



2) Fundamental aspects of environmental assessment:

Evaluation procedures should help to rationalise decisions and allow a statement to be made as to whether a particular objective has been met or whether a particular option for action should be preferred. If the impacts of anthropogenic activities on ecosystems are to be analysed and assessed, a number of conditions must be met. In this lecture fundamental challenges of environmental assessment methods are presented. With a differentiation into ex-post and ex-ante procedures, the LCA should be positioned as a method of environmental assessment. In addition, the possibilities and limits of the LCA are presented.


3) Goal and Scope Definition:
In a standard-compliant life cycle assessment according to ISO 14040/44, the "definition of the objective and the scope of the study" is the first mandatory step by determining how the study is designed. This step has a strong influence on the subsequent components and must therefore be discussed and justified in a balanced way. The LCA standards suggest an iterative approach. The following aspects will be discussed in the meeting: (1) Determination of the motivation and objective of the study (e.g. comparison of different materials or construction materials, comparison of disposal options), (2)Definition and description of the product system, (3) Determination of the technical, geographical and temporal system boundaries and cut-off criteria, (4) Determination of the functional unit and the reference flow, (5) Other specifications regarding data collection, data quality requirements, the type of impact assessment and evaluation, the type of critical review.

4) Life Cycle Inventory):
In der Sachbilanz werden die Input- und Outputflüsse des Produktsystems entsprechend der gesetzten Systemgrenzen zusammengefasst. Bei Ökobilanzen nach ISO-Standard sollten dabei alle wesentlichen Lebenswegabschnitte berücksichtigt werden. Bei den zu betrachtenden Flüssen handelt es sich um Elementarflüsse. Das sind die Stoffe und Energien, die dem Produktsystem ohne Transformation aus der Umwelt zugeführt werden und alle Emissionen und Abfälle, die aus dem Produktsystem der Umwelt zugeführt werden. Die Ergebnisse der Sachbilanz bilden den Ausgangspunkt für die Wirkungsabschätzung. Die Sachbilanzierung fußt auf wissenschaftlichen Prinzipien und verfolgt das Ziel der Objektivität. In der Vorlesung wird eine allgemeine Vorgehensweise zur Erstellung der Sachbilanz besprochen. Dabei liegt besonderes Augenmerk auf (1) dem Verständnis von Prozessmodulen, (2) der Erstellung von Inventories über Input-Output-Analysen einzelner Prozessmodule und Prozessketten, (3) Problem der Allokation bei Multifunktionalität oder Recyclingprozessen und (4) Möglichkeiten der Beschaffung von Ökobilanzdaten.

5) Life Cycle Impact Assessment – LCIA:
The aim of Life cycle impact assessment - LCIA is to use the data collected in the Life Cycle Inventory to analyse and to evaluate the potential environmental impacts of a product system.
Impact assessments are needed to organize and possibly aggregate the wide range of data on material and energy flows and emissions from the life cycle inventory in order to assess the significance of the environmental effects of the product system on environmental compartments. The aim is to process the extensive information from the Life Cycle Inventory in such a way that it can be evaluated and communicated in a way that is also comprehensible to non-experts.

6) Environmental Product Declarations:
For product environmental declarations (EPD) according to ISO 14025 Type III, a life cycle assessment must be carried out which includes all significant life cycle stages and illustrates the environmental impact with a number of relevant impact indicators. The LCA must be verified by an independent third party (critical review), but certification is not necessary. In order to prepare an EPD), a professional exchange of information must be ensured along the entire value chain.

The ISO 14025 Type III EPDs are based on a standardised procedure that is intended to ensure international comparability and credibility. It is carried out in quantitative form, but without evaluation. No specific environmental requirements are set for a product, the fulfilment of which must be proven via the EPD.

Instead, the EPD should serve as an information instrument and be used, for example, for the continuous improvement of products as part of environmental management. The procedure is internationally standardised - for individual product groups, procedural rules are drafted by interested parties such as industry associations (i.e. Product Specific Requirements, Product Category Rules). The initiative comes from industry itself, i.e. participation in a corresponding EPD programme is voluntary.

7) Streamlined Life Cycle Assessments:
The time and effort required to prepare life cycle assessments is high, depending on the complexity of the product system under investigation. In many cases, limited data availability must also be assumed. In order to nevertheless arrive at the most reliable and plausible assessment of the environmental impacts of a product, simplified procedures ("streamlined" or "screening" LCA) are used or only selected impact categories are considered ("carbon footprint"). The session will discuss the "Simplified Method of the UBA (VERUM)", the Product Carbon Footprint (PCF according to ISO 14067) and other proxy indicators (MIPS, Ecological Footprint).


8) Outlook: Sustainability Assessments
Ecological aspects are only one element of a holistic approach. However, only a few instruments are available for a quantitative sustainability assessment. Some approaches will be presented in this lecture.


Lernergebnisse/Kompetenzen:
Fachkompetenzen: After successful participation in this module students are able to
  • define the terms life cycle assessment and life cycle assessment.
  • deal with the requirements of relevant norms and standards (especially ISO 14001, ISO 14025, Product Category Rules) and apply them in their own models
  • differentiate different types of impact assessment and assess their methodological suitability.
  • to critically examine LCA studies and assess their methodological quality.
Fachübergreifende Kompetenzen: After successful participation in this module students are able to
  • independently analyse models and develop solutions.

  • to control their own learning and to reflect on learning episodes individually (e.g. by means of a learning diary).

  • to work scientifically and to critically deal with the arguments of others.

  • to present problems, solutions and the underlying information to experts and laypersons on the current state of research and application.

  • to discuss findings from one´s own special fields with colleagues, to present them to an academic audience, or to communicate them to laypersons in an understandable way.


Notwendige Voraussetzungen für die Teilnahme: keine


Literatur: Klöppfer, W. und Grahl, B. (2009): Ökobilanz (LCA). Ein Leitfaden für Ausbildung und Beruf. WILEY-VCH Verlag, Weinheim.

Curran M.A. (2015): Life Cycle Assessment Student Handbook. Wiley-Scrivener.

Will, M. (2018): Stoffstrommanagement und Ökobilanzierung. Lernheft der AKAD University.

Kaltschmitt / Schebeck (2015): Umweltbewertung für Ingenieure. Springer Verlag.

Hausschild et al. (2018): Life Cycle Assessment - Theory and Practice.

Hauschild, Huijbregts, Guinée, et al. (2015) Life cycle impact assessment. Springer

Finkbeiner, M (ed.) (2011): Towards Life Cycle Sustainability Management. Springer Verlag.