Papers by Keyword: Life Cycle Inventory

Abstract: Brazil is one of the main producers and exporters of natural stones in the world. Aiming to contribute to environmental improvements, the life cycle inventory of Brazilian natural stones – LCI Stones was elaborated. This paper presents the results obtained along the LCI Stones project. The project was carried out according to the Brazilian methodology for the elaboration of inventories and to the 14040 and 14044 ISO standards. The study consists of two product systems: quarrying and processing (which is divided in two other subsystems: sawing and polishing), being the last one the main system of this study. The product considered is the polished slab. The data were collected within producing companies, comprising a representative time period for the inventory validation. All inputs and outputs of mass, water and energy as well as products and emissions, within the boundaries, were identified and quantified. The main difficulty found in the data collection was the lack of data control by the companies, mainly the water and energy consumption and polishing inputs. The results of the study showed that, among the stone production processes, gang saw cutting was the one with the most relevant impacts. On account of the rapid technological improvements during the last years, the LCI-Stones is being updated by CETEM.

Abstract: The dimension stone sector is more and more active in developing new solutions to improve the sustainability of its supply chain, partly as a consequence of the current EU policies on Circular Economy and Raw Materials. The Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a recognized scientific tool for evaluating environmental impacts of the processes. Nevertheless, in the stone sector, LCA is hindered by the scarce availability of Life Cycle Inventory (LCI) datasets for the specific processes of the stone supply chain. This paper provides LCI datasets of the most common and widespread techniques and related technologies for quarrying, cutting and finishing soft-weak stones. To this aim primary data were collected in Italian marble quarries and processing plants and in companies producing cutting tools. When necessary, industry data were complemented with secondary data from literature. High replicability and flexibility of the datasets is obtained through the provision of Unit process inventories for each technology/technique and through the set of parameters. In addition, the uncertainty of the resulting LCI datasets has been evaluated with the well-established procedure of Ecoinvent pedigree matrix. The availability of these datasets contributes to the population of Life Cycle databases and is expected to boost the measurement and enhancement of the key aspects of sustainability in the stone sector.

Abstract: Life cycle inventory (LCI) involves creating an inventory of flows from and to nature for a product system, which is a prerequisite of life cycle assessment (LCA). This paper conducts a comparative analysis of available inventories of cement produced in China and points out the reliability of these inventory results. 1 ton cement was chosen to be the functional unit, and the system boundary was defined from cradle to gate. In the process of cement production, many pollutants will be emitted, so only the four main emissions (CO2, NOX, SO2 and dust) are considered. The analysis showed that the reliability of cement inventories is affected by inaccurate or non-representative data, and all results are difficult to compare due to the varying system boundaries.