Tarek KasahLife Cycle Assessment langlebiger Systeme des Maschinen- und Anlagenbaus

About this book deutschenglish

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a widely accepted methodology for the evaluation of environmental impacts considering the whole life cycle of product systems that has gained considerable importance in the context of the sustainability debate. Applications and scientific developments of the LCA methodology have been mostly limited to short-lived systems for example of the consumer goods sector. Long-living systems of the machinery and equipment sector and capital goods in general have been analyzed very rarely, although their significance has been discussed in the literature. There is a deficit regarding the evaluation of the LCA methodology in the context of long-living systems and the identification of specific methodological challenges.

This book demonstrates and evaluates the LCA methodology by analyzing real systems of the machinery and equipment sector and further highlights and advances relevant methodological aspects of LCA. In cooperation with an industry partner the first part conducts two case studies of a newsprint paper machine and a plant for the recycling of sludge waste from paper recycling. Both systems are especially characterized by their complexity, their long lifetime and by their customized, individual set up. A comprehensive evaluation considering both case studies identifies problem areas of the LCA methodology that are especially relevant for long-lasting systems and that need further research.

The second part of the study conducts this research and in collaboration with co-authors uses concepts and knowledge of economics to push the LCA research forward. The case studies have shown that especially the system definition and allocation are important methodological challenges with potentially significant influence on the results. The majority of environmental impacts of the analyzed systems are caused during the use phase, i.e. during operations, of the machinery and equipment systems. Because of the long lifetime these impacts accumulate and lead to an unsatisfactory evaluation with traditional, static LCA. Dynamic approaches therefore are a third problem area that is of special importance in this context. Accordingly, the methodological advances in the second part of this work concentrate on the problem areas of system definition, allocation and dynamic LCA approaches.

Ihr Werk im Verlag Dr. Kovač

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